Qingdao probe may affect attractiveness of commodity finance deals

Is the metal stored in a Chinese warehouse really there? Has the peanut oil shipment that a bank lent money against been swapped for worthless water?

Basic questions have begun to play on the minds of traders and bankers doing business in the world's largest raw material importer, after an investigation began at Qingdao Port into whether more than one license had been issued against the same material.

The duplication, which leaves someone out of pocket when they claim what they thought was theirs, may be the result of deliberate fraud by a company using the same metal to raise multiple loans.