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 The Swiss-based trader said in an email sent to its lenders in June
that part of Qingdao port had been closed with only port authorities
having access and that no stock was moving in or out, according to
the sources.
The financing scandal at the world's seventh-busiest port has left a
string of global banks and trading houses scrambling to secure metal
supplies. China's CITIC Resources Holdings Ltd <1205.HK> said on
Tuesday it has started court proceedings against the operator of a
bonded warehouse at Qingdao port.
Chinese authorities are investigating a private trading firm,
Decheng Mining, that is suspected of duplicating warehouse
certificates to use a metal cargo multiple times to raise funds.
Decheng Mining has not commented on the probe.
About 20,000 tonnes of copper, nearly 100,000 tonnes of aluminium
ingots and about 220,000 tonnes of alumina have been caught up in
the probe, sources familiar with the matter have previously said.
Mercuria sent out emails on June 6 and June 13 to its banking
syndicate in Asia to inform them of the situation, said the sources,
who asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of the
situation.
In the emails, which were read out to Basis Point, the trading house
said it had stocks of alumina at the port, which were valued at
about $44 million.
This equates to about 135,000 tonnes of alumina at current,
according to traders and Reuters calculations.
Asked for comment, Mercuria's communications department said in an
email that it was their policy not to comment on ongoing legal
matters.
The banking sources are from a group of banks who lent $1 billion to
Mercuria in November 2013.
A refinancing for the 2013 facility will likely be brought on the
lenders' agenda in the coming months, the sources said.
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The warehouse scandal at Qingdao port would be a factor to be
considered in deciding future lending to companies trading
commodities, one of the sources added.
"The Qingdao Port issue will definitely affect our decision if
upcoming financings are from Chinese companies," one of the sources
said. "If borrowers are multinational companies, we need to see how
many commodities the borrowers have stored in Qingdao port."
Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, Bank of
Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, DBS Bank, Emirates NBD Singapore,
First Gulf Bank Singapore, HSBC, Industrial & Commercial Bank of
China London and Singapore, ING Bank, Rabobank, RBS, Societe
Generale, Standard Chartered Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and
Bank of China were mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners of the $1
billion 2013 deal.
(Editing by Sharon Klyne, Richard Pullin and Ed Davies)
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