I received an enquiry from Serhan from Turkey in September 2024 when 5083-H111 aluminium sheet was required and I asked my business manager Peter to quote Serhan.
Serhan's last reply to Peter's email on 9 December 2024 was: ‘This is one of my customer's project but it is not clear yet.
If he gets the job, I will inform you.
Both Peter and I assumed that Serhan had not subsequently bought the right product until 17 April 2025, when I left a message on Serhan's WhatsApp telling him that
On 17 April 2025, I sent a WhatsApp message to Serhan, informing him that our company was participating in the Aluminium Industry Exhibition in September 2025, and that I would like to invite Serhan to meet Perter at our booth.
Serhan's latest news:
This is Serhan's first time to do aluminium business, Serhan heard about a Chinese company from a Turkish customer, Serhan contacted Lisa (+86 15063968186 Qingdao, Shandong), the company name is hebei lingyue metal products co., ltd.
The prepaid contract PI, dated 18 September 2024, is:
6061-T6 AL PLATE 295mm*405mm*250mm, 115PCS, 9274.25KG,2.32usd/kg, 21516.26USD,10%=2151.6USD, Serhan paid 2151.6USD to Hong Kong offshore company.
Serhan got 3 people to inspect the goods, these 3 people only verified the size and quantity, not the company.
On 21 November 2024, Lisa again asked Serhan to pay the final payment, Serhan realised that this was not normal and did not pay the final payment, Serhan found a lawyer to communicate with Lisa about the shipment of the goods, and did not get a reply from Lisa.
By 2025, no goods had been received and no refund of the advance payment had been received. The direct loss was 2151.6USD.
Things I helped Serhan to investigate:
1, I check the company name: hebei lingyue metal products co., ltd., did not find the relevant information, from Lisa sent Serhan's PI to see Lisa's mailbox suffix zglysteel.com, open this website, the product is stainless steel, only a little product about aluminium, the company address written on the website is not detailed. . The conclusion is that there is something wrong with this company.
2, I contacted Lisa's weibo, Lisa said: I just joined last month, I don't know about Serhan.
3, I checked the price of aluminium ingot, LME, the average price in September 2024 is USD 2451/Ton, according to the first contract, the price of aluminium plate paid by Serhan is USD 2320/Ton, which is very unreasonable, under normal circumstances, the price of aluminium plate = the price of aluminium ingot + the processing fee, the price of aluminium plate in Serhan's contract is USD 2320/Ton, which is higher than the price at that time, but the price of aluminium plate is not the same as the price of aluminium ingot. In Serhan's contract, the price of aluminium sheet was USD 2320/Ton, which was USD 131 less than the ingot price of USD 2451 at that time, which was unreasonable. Peter's quotation at that time was CIF Ambarli port: USD 3795/Ton, of which the freight cost was USD 255/Ton.
https://www.westmetall.com/en/markdaten.php?action=averages&field=LME_Al_cash
4, the collection account is in Hong Kong, but the bottom of the website shows that it is Shandong Province, Lisa's mobile phone number is also Shandong Province, the city is not consistent.
Serhan said I contacted the wrong person.
