Standard Bank News

Standard Chartered Plc said its $175 million provision to cover its exposure to suspected commodities fraud in China was the result of a conservative view of possible costs but didn't believe there were widespread problems in the sector. Chinese authorities launched an investigation in May into whether metals trading firm Decheng Mining and related companies used fake warehouse receipts at Qingdao Port to obtain multiple loans secured against a single cargo of metal. "We believe that in the provisioning we have taken we have taken a very conservative approach. Our exposure in the warehouses around Qingdao is around $250 million in total," StanChart Chief Executive Peter Sands told reporters on a call on Wednesday after the London-based bank announced first-half results.

Citigroup Inc has about $280 million in loans tied to commodities in two Chinese ports which are at the center of a probe into possible fraud, a senior executive said on Friday, becoming the first U.S. bank to disclose its potential exposure. The total is a large portion of the bank's roughly $400 million worth of so-called repo commodity financing deals in China. Short for repurchasing agreements, repo deals give customers access to short-term credit in exchange for goods. "At this stage we believe the activities are isolated and just specific to those very specific locations," Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach said in a conference call with analysts.

CITIC Resources Holdings Ltd said on Tuesday that metal it owns at Qingdao port may be affected by a probe into suspected fraud, the latest firm caught up in a scandal that has raised broader worries about the risks of metal financing in China. The probe at the Chinese port, where a third-party firm is suspected of using single cargoes of metal multiple times to obtain financing, has also shaken markets amid fears the problems could extend to other ports and force a crackdown on using metal as collateral for finance. The investigation into the status of aluminium and copper products stored at the world's seventh-biggest port may hit the group, CITIC Resources said, sending its shares down by more than 8 percent to their lowest since May 7.

European physical coal prices dropped on Monday as demand across the region fell on the back of mild weather and healthy stocks. Cargos for delivery in July to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp (ARA) were trading at $77.50 a metric ton, down around half a dollar since their last settlement, and cargos for delivery this month from South Africa's Richards Bay terminal fell $0.7 to $77.50 a metric ton. Traders said the lower prices were a result of weakening European demand. "Winter was mild, and so has spring so far. Coal stocks are high so utilities are burning down their reserves before placing new orders," said one coal trader. Standard Bank said in a research note published last week that Europe's thermal coal market was well supplied.

Ryan Flynn is returning to Konecranes Plc and he has been appointed Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Equipment. Flynn will be a member of the Konecranes Group Executive Board and will report to Pekka Lundmark, President & CEO. Flynn will start in his new position on June 1, 2014. Ryan Flynn has held the position of Vice President, Strategy & Business Development at BlueScope Steel, Global Building Solutions since 2013. In 2005-2013, Flynn worked at Konecranes Plc as the Senior Vice President…

Excess oil industry stockpiles are likely to disappear entirely in October or November as winter demand overwhelms supply constrained by OPEC export curbs, analysts said. Inventory statistics, always key to the international oil market, have assumed an even greater significance over the past week as OPEC officials singled out the indicator as the leading factor for judging when to ease supply limits. Now, even the most cautious of analysts expect OPEC's target of shrinking stockpiles to pre-1998 levels to be achieved before the end of the year - at least three months before an agreement on output cuts expires. "With no schedule for another quota review before March 2000…