In the Singapore court filings, Kataman said it paid US$3.3mil for 167 tonnes of London Metal Exchange-branded nickel from Singapore-based New Alloys, but the material never arrived at the agreed destination in Dubai. — Bloomberg
Singapore: US trading house Kataman Metals LLC is suing several companies for allegedly defrauding it out of more than US$3mil worth of nickel and for not paying US$1mil in interest on tin and nickel cargoes, filings in Singapore and British high courts show.
In the Singapore court filings, Kataman said it paid US$3.3mil for 167 tonnes of London Metal Exchange-branded nickel from Singapore-based New Alloys, but the material never arrived at the agreed destination in Dubai.
When Kataman tracked down the metal, which was stored in Malaysia, they found no nickel, the court document said. Kataman is also suing Techies Logistics (S) Pte, the logistics company that handled the shipment.
In the court filing, Techies said it had no knowledge of the containers’ content, and that the description of the goods had been provided by New Alloys.
Kataman, New Alloys and Techies did not respond to several emails from Reuters requesting comment. Kataman’s lawyer in Singapore declined to comment.
In a separate lawsuit in London, Kataman is suing TMT Metals (UK) Ltd for nearly US$1mil in interest and storage charges relating to the sale of tin and nickel.
In the court filings, Kataman said it had agreed to sell 252 tonnes of tin ingots to Mine Craft Ltd in August 2022 and 167 tonnes of nickel cathode to TMT in September, using suppliers nominated by the two firms. It did not name the suppliers.
TMT and Mine Craft agreed to pay interest to Kataman while the metal was in transit, but they failed to pay most of the amount, Kataman said in the court filing. Kataman said it was only suing TMT because TMT had guaranteed to make payments in case Mine Craft failed to do so.
Mine Craft could not be reached for comment. — Reuters
