(Dec 9): Trafigura Group reported a strong year for both its oil and metals divisions as the commodities trading giant boosted payouts to staff and profit remained resilient.
The company posted net income of US$2.67 billion in the financial year through September, its first under new chief executive officer Richard Holtum. While that’s down 3% from the previous year, it comes as headwinds in the oil market hit profitability at some rival trading houses.
The company’s metals and bulk-commodities division “performed particularly strongly”, Holtum said in the annual report published on Tuesday. In an accompanying video, the CEO said that overall trading conditions “were not easy” and that the firm’s results were “pretty good at an absolute level but also at a relative level, compared to our peers”.
The earnings are also the latest indication of how profitability — for some of the industry’s biggest firms at least — has leveled out at much higher levels than were normal before the energy crisis. Prior to 2021, Trafigura’s highest profit was US$2.2 billion in 2013.
Trafigura’s bumper results are important for meeting share-buyback commitments, which are the main way it rewards top executives and which have grown in recent years after a wave of senior departures. At US$2.9 billion, those payouts jumped 43% from the previous year, outstripping the company’s earnings, though group equity was maintained over US$16 billion.
Bloomberg reported in November that Trafigura’s share price rose about 60% in the last financial year and that it would be deferring about 50% of buybacks due this year.
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Market outlook
The company noted on Tuesday that commodity markets are being reshaped by geopolitics, the energy transition and shifting regional alliances.
“The market environment in FY2026 remains highly subject to change, with evolving trade policies, moderating global demand growth in some commodities and ongoing supply-side disruptions,” Holtum said in the report.
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Trafigura is the world’s biggest trader of metals, and its nonferrous metals trading business posted record earnings, according to a person familiar with the matter.
That comes as tariffs in the US and supply disruptions from mines and smelters have driven acute regional shortages and huge shifts in trade flows of copper and aluminium.
US trade policies “defined the year”, metals and minerals divisional head Gonzalo De Olazaval said. The company also made a push into physical gold and silver markets as prices for both metals soared to all-time highs.
In energy, the firm’s traded volumes of crude and oil products rose 10% to average 6.6 million barrels a day, while liquefied natural gas volumes climbed 19% to 12.7 million tonnes.
Energy profits were bolstered by investments. Trafigura bought into the Greenergy oil-products distribution business as well as the Fos-sur-Mer refinery in the south of France.
The integration of the refinery “was particularly beneficial in the gasoline market, where a tight balance between supply and demand was maintained throughout the year,” said Trafigura’s head of oil, Ben Luckock.
Volatility ahead
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The firm expects the market swings that dominated commodities trading over the course of 2025 to continue.
“What we saw last year was significant, headline-driven volatility; I don’t think it’s going to change,” Holtum said in the video.
As well as investments, Trafigura has also shed some assets, with Holtum looking to streamline some parts of the company. It has offloaded a bulk-commodities terminal in Louisiana and a barging network in Colombia.
In the zinc business, it’s still grappling with costs related to its smelting business Nyrstar, recognizing a US$241 million impairment against the unit’s Australian assets over the year.
In previous years, the company has suffered several expensive and embarrassing frauds — first in nickel and then in Mongolian oil. Trafigura said on Tuesday its provision for losses on its Mongolian oil-products business grew 25% during the last fiscal year to US$709 million, and that its review of what happened “remains ongoing”.
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