Trafigura reports slight increase in net profit for the first half, but lower revenue

Trafigura, a global commodity trading company, reported Thursday that it's net profit increased slightly from the previous year to $1.52 billion for the first half 2025 of its financial year. However its revenues decreased due to lower average commodity prices.

The net profit of the unlisted company was up by 3% compared to the first half in 2024. This stabilised after the sharp decline in the 2024 full year results when the company found a $1.1billion fraud in Mongolia, and major trading houses adjusted for the end of a record earning period in 2022-2023.

Richard Holtum, who took over as CEO of the Swiss-based trading firm from Jeremy Weir on January 1, was also the first half of the 2025 financial period, which runs for six months up to March 31.

The move comes at a time when commodity traders are also grappling with the global markets that have been thrown into chaos this year due to increased trade and geopolitical conflicts.

Trafigura's Chief Financial Officer Stephan Jansma stated that "increased volatility" may not translate into actual trading opportunities as the current market movement is driven by policy decisions, rather than the traditional disruptions of supply and demand. He also predicted that the turbulence will continue throughout the second half year.

The firm's results report stated that the group revenues fell by 4%, to $119,2 billion. This was due to lower average commodity prices.

Trafigura and rival traders Vitol, Gunvor and others saw their profits fall in 2024, as the boom period of 2022-2023 ended. This was due to the recovery from the pandemic and the commodity price shocks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Trafigura’s net profit for the full year 2024 was $2.8 Billion, down from $7.4 Billion in 2023.

OIL AND GAS VOLUMES UP, METALLES DOWN

Trafigura’s first half traded oil and natural gas volumes remained unchanged from the previous year, at approximately 7.2 million barrels of crude per day.

Metals traded volumes fell. Trafigura sold 9.9 million tons of nonferrous metals in the past year, down from 10.4 millions a year ago, because it focused on "profitable tonnes."

Bulk mineral volumes dropped to 43.4 millions tons from 54.7 in the first half 2024.

Trafigura said that it would pay dividends of $1.537 billion over the period. The majority of these dividends were related to redemptions. (Reporting and editing by Jamie Freed; Robert Harvey)

(source: Reuters)