The commodity trading industry has accumulated as much as $120bn in cash reserves after five years of record growth, building a war chest that the biggest traders are set to reinvest to strengthen their dominance. The industry reserves, estimated at between $70bn and $120bn in a study by consultants Oliver Wyman, are the result of a huge rise in profits across almost all parts of the industry.
Rival Trafigura, reported record net profits of $7.4bn in its most recent financial year, which ended in September, and tripled its dividend to the company’s 1,200 employee-shareholders to $5.9bn. One consequence has been a gradual “changing of the guard” with some of the trading houses using record profits to buy out wealthy executives and bring in others, Perkins said.