Financiers and warehousing secretly communicated "funds" and many companies were recruited and defrauded of hundreds of millions of yuan
Editor's note: Cases of repeated pledge financing are not uncommon, and this time, the target is aluminum spot.
Recently, the relevant financiers have put more than one shipment of aluminum ingots in stock, resulting in the inability of the owner to pick up the goods, causing a collective run.
Why can several seemingly unknown trading companies deceive many well-known enterprises and formal institutions?
How will the entire trade ecosystem be reconstructed?
Securities Times reporter Shen Ning Wei Shuguang Xu Xiaoru
At the end of May, the aluminum spot trade market exposed the repeated pledge of aluminum ingots, which caused an uproar in the industry.
The financier put more than one shipment of aluminum ingots in stock, resulting in the inability to pick up the goods and triggering a collective run by the shippers. At present, the public security organs have been involved in the investigation.
Securities Times reporters found through multiple investigations that the repeated pledge of aluminum ingots involved more than 20 companies and several delivery warehouses.
A person familiar with the matter revealed that behind the incident, several financiers in the trade chain were suspected of bribing a number of delivery warehouses and jointly carried out repeated pledge fraud, which had a very bad impact on the industry-the volume of spot trade plummeted in the short term, and the entire trade The ecosystem may be restructured, and the warehousing industry may face a reshuffle.
Billions of billions of aluminum ingots are repeatedly pledged
Li Hua (pseudonym), the person in charge of a company involved in this incident, told the Securities Times reporter that the cause of the incident was that at the end of May, Ping An Trading Co., Ltd. When handling the delivery business of the goods, it was found that there was a serious phenomenon of repeated pledge financing for the goods in the warehouse.
"The goods pledged by the financing party to Ping An Trading included more than 30,000 tons of aluminum ingots, involving a capital of about 600 million yuan, but Ping An Trading went to Zhongjin Shengyuan's warehouse to stock up, but found that the quantity of goods was obviously insufficient. Worrying about the loss of funds, Ping An Trading I quickly transferred the goods to other warehouses in advance, and it is said that about 8,000~10,000 tons were transferred. Due to the turbulent situation, other cargo owners also followed the news and went to the warehouse to rush to pick up the goods and move them to the warehouse. Some cargo owners could not pick up the goods, so they called the police, and the police quickly sealed the Zhongjin warehouse." Li Hua said.
A case of repeated pledge of aluminum ingots involving billions of yuan has gradually surfaced, and the police have been involved in the investigation.
"After the problem in the Zhongjin warehouse, the capital and cargo owners quickly realized that it was Shanghai Juyi International Trade Co., Ltd., Shanghai Haishirong Industrial Co., Ltd., Shanghai Ruiguang International Trade Co., Ltd., etc. in the aluminum trade chain. There was a problem with the financing party, so they went to check which warehouses they still had business in, and the cargo owners went to pull the goods. It was found that several warehouses such as Shanghai Nanchu, Zhejiang Kangyun, and Ningbo Jiulong had the problem of repeated pledges, such as 10,000 tons. The goods have been repeatedly pledged to multiple funders for financing, and some funders may face relatively large losses." Li Hua said.
It is understood that Zhejiang Kangyun, Ningbo Jiulong, Shanghai Nanchu, etc. are all delivery warehouses, and some warehouses have been closed and controlled.
"No one expected that several financiers would conduct repeated pledge fraud through multiple delivery warehouses, which had a very bad impact on the ecology of the aluminum industry trade circle, and the amount involved may be several billion yuan." Li Hua said.
A list out of the industry shows that there are dozens of funders in this aluminum ingot pledge incident, covering a wide range.
There are not only overseas trading giants such as Glencore and Trafigura, large state-owned enterprises in Shandong and Fujian, but also risk management subsidiaries of many futures companies such as Ping An Trading.
The financier buys the warehouse?
From what we know so far, Shanghai Juyi International Trade Co., Ltd., Shanghai Haishirong Industrial Co., Ltd. and other financing parties, and the joint storage company will repeatedly make warehouse receipts for aluminum ingots in stock, and send them to the trading companies of large state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, and foreign enterprises. In order to repeat the financing fraud, the incident is still fermenting.
"A lot of people in the spot industry have been talking about this recently. In our opinion, some old people in the industry took advantage of the industry rules. Nonferrous metals pay first and then deliver the goods. In normal nonferrous trade, the goods flow very fast, maybe 1 to 3 days. After the transaction is completed, everyone generally does not go to the nuclear warehouse to inspect the goods, and no one dares to fake it. But this time, what happened was the pledge. Pallets and pledges are relatively common in the industry and have a long time limit. If the risk control is not strict, it is easy to have problems." A banker told the Securities Times reporter.
People familiar with the matter said that Shanghai Haishirong Industrial Co., Ltd. has the largest pledged funds among the above-mentioned financiers.
According to Tianyancha data, the company's shareholders are two natural persons, and the actual controller Chen Xi holds 95% of the shares.
It is reported that Chen Xi once worked in a large non-ferrous central enterprise.
Why can several seemingly unknown trading companies deceive so many well-known enterprises and formal institutions?
"There may be several reasons for this. First, the financiers are a group of particularly senior people in the non-ferrous circle, some of them are from China Aluminum, and some have always done a lot in the aluminum market and are very famous. , the counterparty will be relatively trusted; the second is that because of the large size of these people, they have a heavy voice in the warehouse, and the warehouse often requires them, which provides the possibility for illegal operations. As far as I know, some warehouses are following this time. The financiers involved in the accident did not have the aluminum business until they cooperated; third, the financiers were familiar with the industry and exploited some loopholes. They were very clear about the counterparty’s risk control habits. This time the incident happened in the delivery warehouse, not the standard warehouse receipt. , because the default delivery warehouse in the industry has higher credit." The person in charge of a trading company in Shanghai pointed out.
Another source revealed that a warehouse involved in Shanghai has been taken over by the headquarters, and the relevant person in charge has been suspended. It is basically confirmed that there is a problem of repeated pledge of false warehouse receipts. The specific amount involved is unknown, and the warehouse is currently liquidating the goods. In the reconciliation stage with customers, Securities Times reporters will pay more attention to relevant information in the follow-up.
Spot trade volume plummets, warehousing industry faces reshuffle
In Li Hua's view, the repeated pledge financing event of the aluminum ingot warehouse will have a profound impact on the industry.
First, the structure of spot trade, trade habits, and the entire trade ecosystem may be restructured.
The number of links in the spot trade chain may be reduced. In the past, the turnover between traders may be directly from end to end in the future.
At the same time, the financing scale of non-ferrous metals may be reduced, and the inventory should be removed as much as possible for sales. In short, the trade habits and operation mode of the industry will be affected.
Second, the warehousing industry is facing a reshuffle.
Since the market currently lacks confidence in the warehousing industry, cargo owners will store their goods in central enterprises such as the Central Reserve and the State Reserve, and the warehousing industry may gradually concentrate on the head.
At the same time, the state should regulate the warehousing industry, and some small-scale private enterprises with irregular governance may be eliminated from the market.
Warehousing is the infrastructure of the entire commodity industry, and it is of great significance to ensure its healthy operation.
Finally, risk management subsidiaries will face business decisions.
If this pattern does not change, there will be no profit to be made in reducing the scale, and there will be huge risks in expanding the scale, which is worth thinking about by companies.
"This matter does not have much impact on the price operation of the aluminum market. Market buyers are afraid of rushing to buy because they are worried about the safety of the supply, but they only have a certain pressure on the short-term spot market." Li Hua said.
"Everyone dare not do it, and you don't even know if the goods are available, so you definitely dare not buy it!" said the person in charge of the aforementioned trading company in Shanghai.
According to him, the current spot trading circle is already in a situation where everyone is in danger, the market has suffered a great negative impact, and trade activity has plummeted.
The non-ferrous business of many companies has basically been suspended, and those who have goods are rushing to stock up and move warehouses, for fear of being implicated by this incident.
It is also worth mentioning that the financing trade business in this incident may face large-scale scrutiny, and the pallet business of state-owned enterprises may be greatly reduced.
"Before Shandong Province issued a special document prohibiting large state-owned enterprises in Shandong Province from entering unrelated bulk commodity trade, which may have something to do with this matter. The difference between shadow banking and bank pledge business in terms of risk control is that shadow banking The bank only pays attention to the control of the form of cargo rights, while the bank pays attention to the risk management of the whole process." The aforementioned banker said.