Traders earn a lot of money if they have bought gas and oil at lower prices and can now resell their quantities with significant profits. At the same time, they have to deposit high security deposits.
(Photo: dpa)
Zurich, Dusseldorf In view of the extreme price fluctuations in oil, gas and other energy sources, Europe’s energy traders are warning of a financial crisis in global commodity trading. The industry association European Federation of Energy Traders (Efet), to which utilities such as Uniper belong, but also pure traders such as Trafigura, speaks in a fire letter of “intolerable liquidity bottlenecks” caused by “high and volatile energy prices”.
These endangered the functionality of the European energy markets. The association is therefore calling for financial support for commodities traders: liquidity support should be provided by governments or public financial institutions, such as central banks, according to the letter. The letter is dated March 8, but has only now become public. The Financial Times first reported on the EFET letter.
The fire letter is another sign of how badly financing conditions in commodities trading have deteriorated. In Germany, for example, the large energy companies Uniper and Steag already had to raise money at the turn of the year.
Read on now
Get access to this and every other article in the
Web and in our app free of charge for 4 weeks.
further
Read on now
Get access to this and every other article in the
Web and in our app free of charge for 4 weeks.
further