The fall of China’s “manganese king” may hit global EV supply chains

ONE AFTER another, the empires of China’s most powerful industrialists are collapsing. In January local media reported that Li Hejun, a solar-panel magnate and once the country’s richest man, had been detained by the police. Liu Zhongtian, who created Asia’s largest aluminium company, is said to have been chased by creditors this year as his company is restructured. Hui Ka Yan, another erstwhile rich-list-topper, was detained in September as his property-development group, Evergrande, foundered. On October 10th Bloomberg reported that He Jinbi, the boss of one of China’s largest copper-trading houses, had also been apprehended by the authorities.