Alexandre Dietz, Head of Trade and Structured Finance at Gerald Group
Turning to the trading houses, panellists in a session moderated by lawyer Catherine Lang Anderson from A&O Shearman, agreed that while traders “love volatility” and make their money from it, that is a different business model from, say, mining. Diesel pricing went from US$700/tonne to almost US$2000/tonne, explained Alexandre Dietz, Head of Trade and Structured Finance at Gerald Group, which “may hit hard on the economics”.
The US-based company is among the world’s largest metals and minerals traders and also has mining operations covering, as it states, the “entire commodity value chain from sourcing, mining and processing and marketing to logistics, hedging, risk management, and structured finance solutions”4. In January 2026, Gerald Group announced the closing of a US$365m revolving credit facility up from the previous year’s US$230m.5 With deals like this, liquidity is not an issue at the moment but, as energy, industrial and shipping group Duferco’s CFO Sander Stuijt asked, “What happens if the banks lose their sense of humour?” The panel discussed the importance of diversifying funding sources. Dietz recalled how Trafigura first tapped German export credit agency Euler Hermes to secure gas supplies6, and is now on to their third guaranteed facility announced in February 2026.7 “It is good liquidity to be tapped and there is appetite for critical minerals,” he said.
Reflecting on the Summit’s discussions, Deutsche Bank’s Barry Pieters, Head of Natural Resources Finance Amsterdam said that the Dutch capital’s annual event is “an excellent opportunity to exchange perspectives”. He added, “The current global environment brings challenges but also great opportunities to the wider commodities industry.”
Figure 1: Market overview
Source: Exile Group
A look at the Commodity finance report – 2025 from TXF Intelligence (9 March 2026)8 confirms how the commodity trade finance industry has responded to a new period of instability after several years of “relative calm”. However, when viewed alongside the wider geopolitical picture, ongoing fragmentation of the post-1945 international system is a recurrent theme. “Geopolitical volatility has become less a temporary disruption and more a structural characteristic of the international system,” commented Deutsche Bank Research analysts in their World Outlook issued 1 June.9
This sense of volatility becoming business as usual could be one reason why the TXF reported overall 2025 commodity finance volumes were up 25% year on year, from US$134.5bn to US$168.1bn. The number of deals closed across the year fell slightly from 157 to 153 but remained stable. Their data demonstrates the prevalence of large transactions that required larger syndications – a trend that seems to have continued into early 2026, judging by press releases on trader websites. In 2025 the number of highly syndicated deals of 10 or more lenders sits at 55, up from 35 in 2024 (see Figure 1). As for how 2026 will pan out, with facility utilisation up and availability of crude a greater concern than its price for the larger trading companies, it could be a busy year.