Trafigura bosses lose out on cash despite record trading

Payouts to top brass at commodities trader Trafigura sank this year after becalmed oil markets dented profits.

The privately owned firm saw record-high volumes of oil and metal trading in the year to September 30 but for much of the year oil markets suffered from “oversupply and relatively low volatility”.

That squeezed margins and limited opportunities to make money by buying up vast quantities of oil and storing it, a common tactic when the future price of oil is higher than the current price.

Overall profits fell 9% to $887 million (£662 million), while the dividend payout to bosses and hundreds of senior employees fell from $719 million to $569 million, the figures showed.

Conditions were brighter in metals and mining markets, where “robust economic growth” prompted higher prices, according to chief executive Jeremy Weir.

Traded volumes jumped 19% to 69.9 million tonnes and the firm is eyeing further growth thanks to an anticipated surge in electric vehicles.

This year carmaker Volvo has committed to producing electric or hybrid vehicles from 2019 onwards, leading to a doubling in the price of metals used in their batteries such as cobalt.

Other manufacturers are expected to follow Volvo’s lead.

Weir said: “The expected growth of electric vehicle sales has considerable implications for metals markets.

“Copper is already one clear beneficiary, but if, as expected, electric vehicles account for an increasingly significant proportion of a growing global vehicles fleet from 2025, it will drive rises in demand for nickel and cobalt.

“That provides a very promising environment for our growing cobalt and nickel trading activity,” he said.