The Bloomberg “Odd Lots” podcast episode examines “commodity finance,” the funding mechanisms that support the production, transportation, and storage of physical goods worldwide. The discussion, featuring Lewis Hart, head of corporate advisory and banking at Brown Brothers Harriman, focuses on how commercial finance works in practice—such as who provides the money to fund an oil tanker and what risks arise when shipping is disrupted, including scenarios like a tanker becoming stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. The episode also addresses how risk is priced in commodity-related financing and what factors can determine whether a warehouse is considered “good” or “bad” for lenders and counterparties. A key theme is the difference between financing commodities that have active hedging markets and those that do not. The podcast contrasts oil, which can be hedged using futures, with a commodity such as cashews, where there is no comparable futures market. The overall framing is that commodity finance remains largely out of view until disruptions or problems occur, despite playing a central role in moving goods through ports, shipping, and storage infrastructure.
Odd Lots podcast explores how commodity finance underpins global supply chains
The Bloomberg “Odd Lots” podcast episode examines “commodity finance,” the funding mechanisms that support the production, transportation, and storage of physical goods worldwide. The discussion, feat...
- Bloomberg’s “Odd Lots” podcast discusses commodity finance as funding for commodity production, transportation, and storage.
- Lewis Hart of Brown Brothers Harriman explains how commodity finance works, including how risk is priced.
- The episode uses shipping examples, including the prospect of an oil tanker being stuck (e.g., in the Strait of Hormuz).
- It covers how warehouse quality can affect commodity financing.
- The podcast contrasts financing commodities that can be hedged (like oil with futures) versus commodities without futures markets (like cashews).
On this episode of the Odd Lots podcast, Lewis Hart, head of corporate advisory and banking at Brown Brothers Harriman, joins Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway to discuss how the business of commodity finance actually works and the difference between financing a commodity you can hedge (like oil) versus one where there's no futures market (like cashews). (Source: Bloomberg)
2 months agoWe talk about the commodity supply chain all the time. We talk about the ports and the trucks and the ships and all of that. But there's another dimension to moving commodities all around the world, which is actually paying for it. Who funds the oil tanker and what happens when that tanker is, say, stuck in the Strait of Hormuz? Commodity finance underpins production, transportation and storage of a wide variety of the things that make the modern world, but you tend to only hear about it when things go wrong. Today we speak with Lewis Hart, head of corporate advisory and banking at Brown Brothers Harriman. We discuss how the business of commodity finance actually works, how risk is priced, what makes for a good or bad warehouse, and the difference between financing a commodity you can hedge (like oil) versus one where there's no futures market (like cashews). (Source: Bloomberg)
2 months agoWe talk about the commodity supply chain all the time. We talk about the ports and the trucks and the ships and all of that. But there’s another dimension to moving commodities all around the world, which is actually paying for it. Who funds the oil tanker and what happens when that tanker is, say, stuck in the Strait of Hormuz? Commodity finance underpins production, transportation and storage of a wide variety of the things that make the modern world, but you tend to only hear about it when th
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