Trafigura has $14 billion headache after surge in overdue debts

A solid headline profit for commodity trading giant Trafigura Group masked something unusual beneath the surface: a significant chunk of its customers have stopped paying.

Trafigura was owed US$10.5 billion (S$14.12 billion) by trade debtors at the end of March, its half yearly report showed on June 6. That’s not unusual for the commodity trading giant, which sells hundreds of billions of dollars worth of oil, gas and metals every year.

But this time, a much larger proportion of them were late paying. Trafigura said that 15.8 per cent of its receivables were more than 60 days overdue, nearly three times the level at the end of September. That implies that Trafigura had US$1.66 billion of receivables more than 60 days overdue, up from US$594 million six months earlier.