邦吉:中国影子银行扭曲大豆交易

The emergence of “financial players” from China has distorted the soyabean trade in the world’s biggest importer of the oilseed, helping depress results at trading house Bunge, the company said.

国际农产品交易巨头邦吉(Bunge)表示，中国的大豆交易因“金融玩家”而被扭曲，导致这家交易商业绩受到影响。中国是全球最大的大豆进口国。

The comment underlines the extent to which the rise of a Chinese shadow banking business that uses bulk material to back loans has upended commodities markets. The trading world has been transfixed over a scandal involving loans made against piles of metal in the dockside warehouses of Qingdao.

邦吉的言论凸显出中国影子银行的壮大对大宗商品市场产生的颠覆性影响。中国影子银行业正日益使用大宗商品做抵押换取贷款。此前青岛港的一宗丑闻曾震惊全球大宗商品交易界，其中青岛码头仓库里的成堆金属就在被抵押后换取贷款。

Agricultural market participants have also been affected. Bunge said China-based “financial players” had obtained financing at favourable rates to buy soyabeans because they were seen as “strategic commodities,” then cashed in the stocks and re-lent at higher rates to retail borrowers.

农产品交易商也受到了这一趋势的影响。邦吉表示，由于大豆被视为“战略物资”，中国的“金融玩家”能以十分有利的利率，以购买大豆的名义获取融资，接着他们会把这些资金在股市兑现，并以更高利率再次出借给散户借款人。

“The way they act in markets is not always logical,” Soren Schroder, chief executive, said in an interview. “They’re in it for the financial arbitrage and not for the fundamental reason” of processing a commodity.

邦吉首席执行官索伦•施罗德(Soren Schroder)在一次访谈时表示：“他们在市场中的行为并不始终合乎逻辑。”他补充说，“他们进入这个市场的目的是金融套利，而不是出于（交易大宗商品的）基本理性”。

New York-listed Bunge’s shares fell 10.8 per cent to $81.33 on Thursday after it reported adjusted 2014 net profit of $4.19 per share, down from $4.78 a year before. China loomed among the causes of the disappointing result.

周四，在纽约上市的邦吉称，2014年调整后的净利润为每股4.19美元，低于一年前的4.78美元。中国是导致业绩令人失望的原因之一。

Bunge operates four plants in China that crush soyabeans into meal for livestock feed and vegetable oil. The crushing industry is battling overcapacity relative to demand. As of late last year, half the country’s capacity was unused, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s attaché in Beijing.

邦吉在华运营四家工厂，业务是将大豆压成家畜饲料，并榨取植物油。压榨行业正面对产能过剩困境。根美国农业部(Department of Agriculture)驻北京专员表示，到去年底，中国这一产业闲置了一半产能。

Drawing from a sprawling network of silos and ports in North and South America, Bunge also supplies about 5-10 per cent of the 70m tonnes of Chinese soyabean imports annually. Three in five tonnes of internationally traded soyabeans land in China.

邦吉通过遍布南北美的筒仓和港口网络收购大豆，供应了中国每年7000万大豆进口量的5%到10%。目前国际上交易的大豆中，每5吨中就有3吨流向中国。

Mr Schroder acknowledged the company’s traders had “misread the underlying demand” for soyabeans inside China as it booked a $30m loss on imports shipped to the country in late 2014. “It does feel a little wobbly,” he said of China’s consumption picture.

施罗德承认，邦吉在2014年下半年向中国出口大豆的交易中录得3000万美元亏损，因为其交易员“误读了（中国国内对大豆的）潜在需求”。在谈到中国的消费状况时，他说：“感觉波动性确实有些大。”

However, he said volumes of soyabeans handled by the financial players had been “significant enough to distort the market”. He added that this type of trading activity had abated over the course of 2014 as Beijing imposed new limitations.

他表示，那些金融玩家经手的大豆数量“大到了足以扭曲市场的地步”。他补充说，随着中国政府引入新的限制措施，这种交易活动已经有所减少。

The impact of Chinese shadow banking on commodities was also illustrated last year in nickel, an ingredient in stainless steel.

去年，中国影子银行业对大宗商品的影响也曾表现在镍的交易上。镍是生产不锈钢的原料之一。

The metals for loans scandal at the port of Qingdao triggered an exit of nickel that had been ‘financed’ in China warehouses for safer London Metal Exchange storage in Asia.

青岛港发生的用金属换贷款丑闻，曾导致在中国仓库内“用于融资的”金属镍外流，流向更安全的伦敦金属交易所(LME)亚洲库房。

As the metal poured out of China, the price of nickel fell sharply as the extent of China’s hidden stocks became clear.

结果，随着中国隐形库存的暴露，镍的价格曾急剧下跌。