On June 1st, in front of a live audience in London, we recorded a special live podcast to celebrate the launch of Adi Imsirovic's new book: Brent Crude Oil - the genesis and development of the world's most important benchmark. The panel consisted of some of the leading figures in the past and current development and trading of Brent. What is Brent? Why is it so important? And what does the inclusion of the WTI mean for it? Adi along with Colin Bryce, partner at Energex, Kurt Chapman, board membe...
Jun 06, 2023•38 min•Ep. 151
Commercial Real Estate, Rates & Renewables with Eugene McGrane The Commercial Real Estate market is in trouble. High interests rates & low occupancy are stressing central business districts across the world. Meeting the demands of the energy transition is an added challenge. Retooling our energy infrastructure requires land for new grid infrastructure – often in urban coastal areas looking to import power from wind. However, this layer of deep complexity in renewables development is ofte...
May 30, 2023•45 min•Ep. 150
Coal Trading with Hayn Park Coal demand reached an all-time peak in 2022. Prices reached levels not seen for over a decade. China is permitting two new coal fired power plants a week and Germany is burning lignite to meet its power demand. Traders reaped huge rewards trying to connect a fragile, disrupted, supply chain. As the world strives for the energy transition, removing coal from our power mix is vital. Financiers and public companies have made firm commitments to this. This has pushed the...
May 23, 2023•44 min•Ep. 149
In late April, we brought together a panel of leading thinkers and executives from across the sector to discuss the impacts of rising interest rates on commodities in front of a live audience in New York City. This inaugural Live HC Insider Podcast event was hosted by HC Group and Brown Brothers Harriman. Where are rates headed? What does it mean for prices, traders, producers, investment and the energy transition? Our panelists were Roland Rechsteiner (Partner, McKinsey), Lewis Hart (Managing D...
May 16, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 148
Commodities in a Deglobalizing World with Jeremy Shapiro Commodities have been at the heart of globalization. Traders roamed freely and commodities priced to the marginal cost of production. Since the mid-2010s that started to change politics moved toward populism and nationalism and geopolitical competition heated it. Today, traders have to navigate a sanction minefield and the weaponization of the dollar. Global trade is fragmenting into blocks. What does this mean for the sector, the talent a...
May 09, 2023•58 min•Ep. 147
Commodity Indexes with Tim Kramer, JC Kneale and Preston Peacock: Commodity indexes have grown in popularity among institutional and private investors, tracking the prices of a diversified basket of commodities to generate returns and hedge inflation, with current allocations totaling over $1.6 trillion in assets. Despite their acceptance, many investors are unsure of how these complex indexes are constructed, how returns are generated, and who ultimately determines the commodities they comprise...
May 02, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 146
Description A View From the Top with Saad Rahim In this episode, Saad Rahim, Chief Economist of Trafigura, the global commodity trading house, joins us to give an overview on the current state of the commodities markets. China is open for business. OPEC is cutting production. Is Oil poised for a big rise? Are cyclical markets over...replaced by a more volatile, less efficient, price-spiking and unpredictable paradigm? Where will metals headed with continued supply constraints? Is Copper the ulti...
Apr 25, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 145
Powering Heavy Industry with Manoli Yannaghas Heavy industry accounts for one third of power consumption. Many leading industrials and miners have ambitious targets to reach net zero. While renewables deployment capture headlines, what about efficiency? What about demand management? In this episode we dive into how new technologies can help companies understand their power consumption and make significant savings through behavioral and process changes. Our guest is Manoli Yannaghas, founder and ...
Apr 18, 2023•37 min•Ep. 144
How long will the energy transition take? The challenges are underestimated. Energy consumption will continue to expand as emerging economies develop, and as new classes of technologies emerge (not least AI where its inherent power consumption is an order of magnitude more than conventional computing). The switch from fuels that are mainly liquids and gases to hardware-intensive technologies like wind, solar and batteries, requires enormous quantities of materials; the supply chains for which ar...
Apr 11, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 143
Hedge Funds & Commodities with Tor Svelland In this episode, we return to hedge funds and their role in commodities for investors, market participants and talent. Why is money returning to hedge funds with commodities focus or exposure? What does it take to succeed in the volatile sector? What tools and experience do hedge fund traders need? And is there anything structural that means this time hedge funds will stay dedicated to the space? Our guest is Tor Svelland, commodity trader and foun...
Apr 04, 2023•57 min•Ep. 142
The Pathways to Decarbonize Transportation with Michael Barnard In this episode, we take the long view of decarbonizing transportation. How will cars, trucks, trains and planes move in 2050? Which technologies will win out and why for each of these modes? Which countries and companies will lead these wholesale revolutions and which bets look safest? What are the pathways available? What criteria can investors and participants use today to evaluate decisions? Our guest is Michael Barnard, decarbo...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 141
In this special episode, I provide notes, quotes and my take away from the FT Commodities Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland. Starting the day Credit Suisse was taken over by UBS, the conference was held against a backdrop of financial turmoil and geopolitical fractures. What do the leaders of the commodities sector see as the major opportunities and challenges, after a year of record profits and the sector itself becoming central to global strategic interests and energy transition. What are the pr...
Mar 23, 2023•29 min
Decarbonization is crucial to tackling climate change. Yet, human history has been a story of increasing energy consumption and hydrocarbons unleashed global development. Today, hope and investment is pinned on a suite of alternatives, especially wind and solar. The economics work. However, do the energetics? Our guest has spent a decade looking at the energy return on investment (EROI) and his work and insight presents a stark contrast and challenge to our current direction. Adam Rozencwajg is ...
Mar 22, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 140
Edward Chancellor, financial historian and journalist, returns in this special update to discuss the unfurling banking crisis. We discuss the common thread across the financial stresses around the world is rising interest rates to tackle inflation. Should central banks be intervening? What has the Fed done with SVB? Are the events with Credit Suisse and the US banks the start of a broader financial crisis? What does this mean for rates going forward? How can the world tackle its debt and what do...
Mar 20, 2023•49 min
Paul Posoli was at the forefront of energy trading through a 20 year career. In this episode, we follow Paul’s story has he joins Enron, builds a trading desk for a merchant and an investment bank, mapping through his career the peaks and valleys this sector has had. At the heart of that journey is Paul focus on people and talent. And it is that focus that led Paul to join Cristo Rey, a non-profit Jesuit high school educating students with and from limited economic resources, as President ( http...
Mar 15, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 139
On March 8th 2022, Nickel prices spiked 100% to $100,000 a tonne in a matter of hours, triggering billions of dollars in margin calls and threatening the very existence of the exchange. The LME took the unprecedented, and controversial, step of cancelling all trades made that day. A decision which enraged some but saved the exchange and the shorts, creating a cascade of legal battles continuing to this day (we recorded this episode prior to the UK’s FCA announcing an official investigation into ...
Mar 08, 2023•50 min•Ep. 138
In 1993, Metallgesellschaft, the German Global Industrial conglomerate lost $1.3bln in oil derivatives trading through its US subsidiary MGRM. The details leading up to their implosion and the subsequent actions taken by their CEO, trading counterparties and their lending banks have been hotly debated by academia, business school students and their contemporaries in the markets ever since. In this episode, as we approach the 30th anniversary of one of the largest and most famous financial calami...
Mar 01, 2023•58 min•Ep. 137
Tantalum… a story of insatiable demand with Hadley Natus You probably have not heard of Tantalum. However, like the Greek mythological figure it is named after, the world is developing a need for it which is not easily satisfied. The supply chain of Tantalum also poses some fundamental questions on the supply chain of the electron economy. Tantalum is in our cell phones, TVs and EVS due to its remarkable properties. However, it is produced by artisanal miners in Congo. In this episode we discuss...
Feb 22, 2023•48 min•Ep. 136
Oil Supply & Demand in 2030 with Joel Couse The energy transition will not be an easy path for a world built on hydrocarbons. The demand picture for the next decade is easier to divine than supply. To meet continued demand, more oil needs to be discovered and produced and more refineries are needed to transform it into the products we use. But who will invest? Who will finance? And who will do it. What oil will be drilled and what will gasoline cost in 2030? What will be the consequences of ...
Feb 15, 2023•55 min•Ep. 135
The Case for Sustainable Aviation Fuel with Steve Mawer Growth in commercial air travel is unrelenting and so its carbon footprint - worrying airlines, passengers, and policy makers alike. Yet, air travel is the hardest to abate sector. Heavy batteries and decades long development cycles mean air travel won't be electrified any time soon. This is where SAF steps in. What is it? Where is it produced and what is the demand and policy support for it? And can it meet the needs of the industry? Our g...
Feb 08, 2023•51 min•Ep. 134
The Price of Time with Edward Chancellor Award-winning, financial journalist and historian Edward Chancellor join us to discuss interest rates and the impact on the commodities sector. Interest rates – the price of money and time – have been unnaturally low since the global financial crisis. This has led to a profound impact on finance and society. Global corporates found financial engineering more “profitable” than focusing on products and operations. Assets inflated and inequality widened. In ...
Feb 01, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 133
In part 2, we examine how the retail fuel world will manage the next decade and the transition to EVs. Will the highly efficient supply systems built over the last two decades decay as investment (and maintenance) dries up? What will happen to prices? Who will trade and who will have the last gas pump in town? How will fuel retailers pivot to EVs? Where will roadside chargers be and will retailers become power traders? How will the power industry respond and what will the challenges be? Will Hyd...
Jan 25, 2023•48 min•Ep. 132
Margin, Volatility & Supply in Retail Fuel with Doug Haugh: Part 1 Fuel is the key driver in the oil market. The story of how diesel and gasoline reach the pump, and who traded it on the way, has shifted dramatically over the past 30 years. Producers, Traders and retailers have ebbed up and down the value chain on the tides of margin, volatility and market efficiency. In that journey, trading teams in the US and Europe have been built and shed. As such, it’s a story that is a microcosm of ma...
Jan 18, 2023•48 min•Ep. 131
The ocean is the world’s largest battery, charged by the sun and the wind year round. Harnessing that energy for power generation has proved problematic for years. Yet, it would bring significant advantages over, and in combination with, the existing renewables suite; lowering intermittency and solving for issues of land use and scale. What is the status of the race to harness the waves? What are the design and environment challenges? And what could be its future? In this episode, we explore Wav...
Jan 11, 2023•44 min•Ep. 130
Oil & Gas Markets in 2023 with Paul Horsnell In this episode we are joined by Paul Horsnell, Global Head of Commodities Research at Standard Chartered, to review the major events that impacts oil and gas markets, as well as broader commodities, in 2022 and what major themes and learnings we can take into 2023. 2022 was an extraordinary year for the commodities sector with organizations struggling with unprecedented volatility while managing long term themes of a shifting political and global...
Jan 04, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 129
The Fate of Rome: climate, disease and the end of an empire with Kyle Harper (Christmas Special) The Roman Period affords us one of the most documented and detailed histories of an ancient civilization. Yet since Edward Gibbon, its decline and fall remains hotly debated. However, over the last couple of decades we have complemented the written evidence with a wealth of climate and disease research. The result is a striking new view and one with echoes for our time. Climate change was foundationa...
Dec 28, 2022•59 min•Ep. 128
Insects & Commodities with Charlie Drew Insects are fundamental to the commodities world. As pollinators, they are crucial to the agri sector and food production. Increasingly, they are being used to recycle trash and farmed to provide protein for aquaculture, animal husbandry and even humans. However, these very alien creatures also show us a way to think very differently too – generating a collective brain created by thousands of individuals in a colony. And it is this decision making proc...
Dec 21, 2022•38 min•Ep. 127
Climate Change is the dominant investment theme of the next 30 years. To decarbonize the planet while managing and mitigating the risks of a more volatile climate will require trillions of dollars, creating immense opportunities and risks for investors. Our guest is Bruce Usher, author of the recently published book “Investing in the Era of Climate Change’ – a clear-eyed handbook on the investing strategies, risks, terminologies and the controversies, from divestment to ESG. What products are av...
Dec 14, 2022•57 min•Ep. 126
The European Energy Crisis is viewed through the lens of a gas supply crisis, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While true, it is as much a product of a European nuclear energy crisis, centered on France. A crisis that is both acute but also forecast to be chronic. And yet, nuclear power is still hailed as the solution to this same crisis and energy transition in general. All the while, for the first time in world, history, a nuclear power plant is being shelled during a military conf...
Dec 07, 2022•55 min•Ep. 125
Following the recent LME week and COP27, we are checking in on the metals market. In particular, Copper, Aluminum and Steel. All these metals face the twin forces of energy transition & sustainability alongside a global market destabilized by COVID, trade wars and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What have been the major trends in these metals in 2022 and what is the outlook for 2023? How will each of these metals fare in the effort to decarbonize, an inflationary global economy and the Europea...
Nov 30, 2022•46 min•Ep. 124
