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* Court unable to secure more than 100,000 tonnes of alumina
* Metal has a value of about $43 mln at current marketprices
* Adds to worries about losses from financing scam at port
* Chinese and global banks exposed to fraud at port (Adds quotes from traders, shares, detail)
By Fayen Wong and Melanie Burton
SHANGHAI/SYDNEY, June 18 (Reuters) - China's CITIC ResourcesHolding Ltd said on Wednesday a court has been unableto secure more than 100,000 tonnes of alumina stored at Qingdaoport, deepening fears that firms exposed to a metals financingscam at the port could face big losses.
The Chinese port, the world's seventh busiest, has been atthe centre of a probe looking into whether a private metalstrading firm, Decheng Mining, used multiple warehouse receiptsfor the same metal cargo to obtain financing.
The alumina the Chinese commodities trader was unable tosecure via a local court has a value of around $43 million basedon current market prices. CITIC Resources said it would conductits own investigation and was considering further legal action.
Traders said there was a risk the metal could have beenalready claimed and removed before part of Qingdao Port wassealed off, adding that at least two trading houses had movedmetal out as soon as news of the scandal broke.
"Authorities will be able to trace which company claimed themetal but if those stocks have already been liquidated thenthere's not much CITIC can do, especially if the other firm alsohad proper documentation," said a Shanghai-based metals trader.
The scandal has rattled global metals markets, reflectingmarket fears about business practices in China and worries thatthe probe could extend to other ports and prompt a crackdown onusing metal as collateral for finance. So far no further caseshave been unearthed.
Panic over the scandal has meant that some metal cargoesheld at China's Qingdao Port have been shipped to more regulatedLondon Metal Exchange warehouses, industry sources have said.
The use of commodities as collateral to raise finance is common practice in China and is not illegal. But duplicatingreceipts to repeatedly mortgage the full value of an asset isfraud and could leave more than one creditor holding claims tothe same collateral.
"The company has been notified that in the enforcement ofthe sequestration orders obtained by the group, the Qingdaocourt has been unable to sequester about 123,446 MT (metrictonnes) of alumina which the group has stored at Qingdao port,"CITIC Resources said in a statement to the Hong Kong exchange.
CITIC Resources said it had title to 223,270 tonnes ofalumina and 7,486 tonnes of copper stored at the port pendingpayment by and delivery to buyers.
COMPETING CLAIMS
CITIC Resources is the commodities trading unit of China'sbiggest and oldest state-owned financial conglomerate company,CITIC Group Corp. Singapore sovereign wealth fund TemasekHoldings also holds an 11.46 percent in the unit.
Shares in CITIC Resources, which have lost about 5 percentsince it said on June 10 that it could be affected by thealleged fraud, were trading up 1.6 percent by 0332 GMT.
The firm said it did not have information on the status ofan investigation by Qingdao authorities and was not yet able toaccurately assess the impact of the alleged fraud.
But firms exposed to the fraud could face competing claims.
"If you're prudent, you'll be insured. If you're notinsured, you could find yourself carrying the can," said aperson at a global trading house based in Singapore.
FALLOUT SPREADING
In March, Goldman Sachs estimated commodity finance deals inChina were worth as much as $160 billion, or about 31 percent ofthe country's total short-term foreign exchange loans.
While Western banks dominate metals financing in China,local banks may also be affected by the investigations intoDecheng Mining.
According to Chinese business daily Caixin, Decheng's parentcompany, Dezheng Resources, and its subsidiaries had borrowed atotal of 14.8 billion yuan ($2.38 billion) from Chinese banks.
No one picked up phone calls to Dezheng's office in Qingdaoseeking comment.
Global banks including Standard Bank Group and apart-owned unit of Louis Dreyfus Corp,Singapore-listed GKE Corp. have warned of potentiallosses from the scandal.
Standard Chartered has said it is reviewing metalsfinancing to a small number of companies in China andacknowledged there are issues in China around commodities, whileCitigroup Inc said it was working with authorities,warehousing companies and clients to resolve the matter.
HSBC Holdings said it was assessing transactions ona case-by-case basis.
($1 = 6.2090 Chinese Yuan Renminbi) (Editing by Ed Davies)
