Commodity Financing We Provide

We Offer Commodity Financing Across The Commodity Lifecycle
For Energy, Metals, Mining, Agricultural Crops & Livestock

Overview Of Commodity Financing We Offer

Commodity Finance is a specialized area of trade finance used for funding the production, transportation and sale of commodities. Commodity Finance provides primarily short-term financing facilities to a range of principals in the commodities business, including producers, commodity traders and major international trading operations, commodity importers and commodity exporters.

Commodity finance facilities may be secured or unsecured depending upon our assessment of the strength of the borrower and the structure and profitability of the underlying deal. Commodity finance is too broad a statement because there are really four different financings in the commodities lifecycle as illustrated in the table above.

Types of Commodities

Commodities are typically divided into four subcategories based on the nature of the product.

  1. Mining and Metals
  2. Oil and Gas
  3. Soft Commodities
  4. Livestock

Types of Commodity Financing

Commodity financing is typically grouped into four specialized categories of financing based on when in the deal cycle the financing is applied.

  1. Pre-export Finance
  2. Countertrade Finance
  3. Barter
  4. Inventory Finance
Commodity Finance Commodity Financing Structured Commodity Finance

Risks in Commodity Financing

Commodities have long been considered a high-risk proposition that’s often difficult to finance, frequently with good reason. More than 100 years ago early commodity trading exchanges were created so that farmers could mitigate the risk of commodities pricing extremes. Commodities have certain characteristics that make them inherently risky which, in turn, makes Commodity Financing riskier. Consider these factors, which are by no means a comprehensive list.

  1. Because commodities are traded openly on public exchanges, there is transparency in pricing, which has a tendency to limit margins.
  2. Commodity prices have always been susceptible to extreme price fluctuations that can substantially affect the value of the collateral securing the Commodity Financing, or even reduce a profitable deal into a money loser in a short time.
  3. Unlike manufactured goods or even raw materials for manufacturing, there is always the risk that external factors will severely impact the viability of the commodity collateral, which makes Commodity Financing difficult.
  4. Agricultural products can spoil, livestock can die, mines can flood and oil and gas can burn.
  5. Commodity Financing is often exposed, along with the collateral, to numerous cross-border jurisdictions, many of which are in emerging markets. Language barriers, cultural division, and political risk can all impact the venture.

For these reasons – and more – firms that finance commodities tend to become specialists who actually focus on a very narrow niche within commodities. In so doing they become experts in particular commodity asset classes. Many financiers who offer Commodity Financing limit the range of commodity asset classes they will finance.

Commodity Finance Commodity Financing Structured Commodity Finance

Structured Commodity Financing

We also offer Structured Commodity Financing or SCF. Structured Commodity Financing is a sophisticated commodity-based trade finance method used for the import, export or foreign trade of commodities. More specifically it provides financing for commodity producers and commodity trading companies who do business in developing countries and emerging markets. We offer Structured Commodity Financing for metals, mining, energy, agricultural crops and livestock. If you would like to learn more, we have in-depth information about Structured Commodity Financing.

Commodity Financing We Offer

Global Trade Funding offers worldwide trade finance and commodity finance services, providing comprehensive commodity finance solutions to the international commodities trade market. We apply decades of trade and commodity finance experience in every transaction in which we are involved, and we are exceptional at what we do. We offer clients a full range of commodity finance solutions, incorporating pre-export finance, shipping finance, and export credit agency-backed finance. Quite simply we are able to deliver comprehensive, solution-based financing to our clients by deploying:

  • Issuance of Letters of Credit
  • Standby Letters of Credit
  • Guarantees and similar trade finance instruments
  • Letter of Credit confirmation services
  • Warehouse and receivables financing

Mining and Metals

We finance the full range of metals including ferrous, base, minor, precious metals and alloys. Our clients and counterparties range across the metal production spectrum including miners, smelters, refiners and traders all the way through to end-users. Our commodities financing capabilities enable us to provide a full financial service tailored to our clients’ requirements.

Energy Commodities

Energy, which is really just oil and natural gas, is a small part of our commodity financing business. Although we do an exceptional job, it cannot match the unparalleled expertise we offer in other commodity finance sectors.

Agricultural Commodities

As a core discipline, we offer clients unrivaled expertise in agricultural commodity financing. We specialize in providing commodity finance to the agricultural sector worldwide, including developing countries despite emerging market risks.

Trade Finance Learning Center

With more than 80% of the world’s trade depending on trade finance it is an essential segment of the financial services sector. It is also one of the least understood of the financial services. One of the things that undermine people’s understanding of trade finance is the absence of a single vocabulary. Do a search for the definition of import financing, for instance, and the top 20 results will provide 20 different definitions. Our trade finance learning center publishes content that we hope will improve understanding of trade finance and its various component segments. Each of the below tabs provides the factual information you need to make good business decisions, beginning with important trade finance definitions.

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