On Monday, March 20, the Wall Street Journal reported that a mix-up in a Dutch warehouse caused JPMorgan Chase, an American global financial services firm, to acquire bags of stones that were wrongly assumed to be nickel.
The company purchased this nickel worth $1.3 million years ago and kept it in Access World’s Rotterdam warehouse in the Netherlands. Reportedly, an operator for the warehouse weighed bags that were thought to contain 54 metric tons of nickel, only to find that they were filled with stones, according to The Wall Street Journal.
According to media reports, the firm was ignorant of the material stored in warehouse bags until last week when the London Metal Exchange (LME) reported that sacks containing around 54 tonnes of nickel in an unnamed warehouse had failed to meet its criteria.
The LME did not disclose the company’s name, but it was later revealed that the bags belonged to JPMorgan Chase.
Reportedly, it’s still unclear whether the bags ever contained nickel, or if the issue is the result of an error, theft, or fraud. Warehouses are responsible for checking and confirming metal under the LME’s requirements. Warehouses must be insured, whereas actual metal traders are often protected against hazards such as theft.
In a statement, Access World, which owned the warehouse, said it is inspecting “warranted bags of nickel briquettes at all locations” and that it believes the issue to be “an isolated case and specific to one warehouse in Rotterdam.”
However, Access World, rather than JPMorgan, is likely to experience financial burdens because it is in charge of inspecting metal upon admission and keeping it safe while it is in the shed. The LME has stated that it is working with the operator to determine what went wrong.