Glencore Arm Pacorini Logistics Sues Qingdao Port for $58.4m

Pacorini Logistics, the metals warehousing unit of Glencore, has dragged China's Qingdao Port, which is at the centre of a major fraud probe, to court.

Pacorini has filed two legal proceedings against Qingdao Port's Dagang Branch and Qingdao Hongtu Logistics, the port said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The Qingdao Maritime Court will hear both cases on 28-29 October, Reuters reported.

Lawsuits

In the first suit, Pacorini said it suffered losses owing to refusals by the port and Qingdao Hongtu Logistics to deliver 8,085 tonnes of aluminium ingots stored at the port's bonded zone.

The goods were worth about 120.1m yuan ($19.54m, £11.7m, €14.6m) based on market value, and Pacorini has demanded that the goods be delivered or to be compensated accordingly.

In the second suit, Pacorini has sought damages of $38.89m against the port and Qingdao Hongtu for not delivering 112,731 tonnes of alumina, Qingdao Port said.

"Given there is no contractual relationship between the company and Pacorini Logistics… the company initial assessment is that the legal proceedings are without merits," Qingdao Port said in a statement, adding that it will "vigorously contest" the allegations.

Qingdao, China's third-largest terminal, is under investigation by authorities over allegations that commodity traders used duplications of warehouse receipts to borrow multiple times on the back of a single cargo of iron ore.

The alleged financing scandal has prompted global banks and trading houses, including Standard Chartered, HSBC and Mercuria Energy Trading, to file lawsuits over their exposure that has topped $900m, the news agency said.

Qingdao port is already being sued by Citic Resources for $108m.