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The company, which was bought by Singapore-based Golden Dragon Resources in June 2017, has lost almost 80% of its LME stocks in one year, exited Asia and significantly reduced its presence in the United States.
WWS declined to comment while Golden Dragon was not immediately available when contacted by Metal Bulletin.
In a members’ notice on Thursday June 7, the LME announced that WWS’ Singapore warehouse was now being operated by rival warehousing company Henry Bath.
This follows three WWS LME-approved warehouses in Detroit being delisted on June 7 as well as another warehouse in Johor on May 24.
WWS now operates just seven warehouses in Antwerp, five in Vlissingen, one in New Orleans and one in St Louis. This time last year the company had warehouses in seven different locations.
“[WWS] have been hovering on the stocks, which were still in the sheds and by now are almost all gone,” a well-informed source said. “There are liquidity issues and metal has been seized by their US service provider,” the source added.
Michigan-based Chat was the logistics provider for the warehouses in Detroit, handling metal in and out of the sheds.
“At this time WWS owes Chat for past due invoices and services rendered,” a source close to Chat told Metal Bulletin. “The collections have not been completed as of yet.”
According to LME data for May 2018, WWS held just 4,485 tonnes of metal across its warehouses.
By comparison, in May 2017, the company held approximately 30,000 tonnes across its warehouses, which included 20,000 tonnes sitting in Antwerp where now just 1,215 tonnes remain.