103 arrests as Chinese police smash fake Loctite glue ring

Police in Shanghai have arrested 103 people on suspicion of involvement in large-scale counterfeiting of Henkel’s big-selling Loctite adhesive range.

The operation also resulted in the seizure of more than 470,000 fake Loctite products and labels worth around $7.1m, according to a report from the Xinhua news agency.

The counterfeiting operation was reportedly led by a former quality control employee of a Loctite facility in China, who had set up dedicated factories to produce knock-off products including production labs, assembly lines, as well as warehousing and recycling operations to re-purpose discarded packaging and labels.

Xinhua reports that the Shanghai police operation resulted from a tip-off earlier this year that fake Loctite products had been manufactured and sold in various Chinese provinces since at least October 2018.

The action comes as China tries to step up its efforts to tackling intellectual property infringements and bring a bruising trade war with the US to a close after months of tariff pledges and posturing on both sides.

Earlier this month President Trump tweeted that the two countries had reached agreement in principle on a ‘very large phase one deal’ covering various issues including IP rights, technology transfers, and dispute settlement.

We have agreed to a very large Phase One Deal with China. They have agreed to many structural changes and massive purchases of Agricultural Product, Energy, and Manufactured Goods, plus much more. The 25% Tariffs will remain as is, with 7 1/2% put on much of the remainder....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2019

Loctite is one of the biggest brands in Henkel’s adhesive technologies division, which is predicted to approach €9.5bn (around $7.2bn) in sales this year out of total group sales of around €20bn.