about

fortress trading is a global commodities trading boutique based in New York City financial district; the team is actively trading in commodities [grains, softs, cash crops etc.], food products, energy [oil and gas, power, coal etc.], focus on renewable energy deals etc.;

The deal origination and transaction development covers trading as well as large scale commodity production in developing countries in both plantation and distributed setting; clear focus is on sustainable and cost-effective technologies/solutions towards large-scale commodity production with continuous effort to lower carbon footprint and embedded energy.

energy trading

our trading desk deals in both physical and financial trades in various grades of crude oil, refined products-gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil and fuel oil, bunker fuel etc. we assist clients in hedging and structuring deals as well, along with advisory work.

our traders have a long history in oil & products trading, marketing, origination and structuring. we deal with many of the major oil companies, refineries, shippers, airlines, transport companies, commodity funds etc.

we have been increasingly sourcing physical crude oil- both sweet, sour and heavy grades from West Africa and South America and placing them via one off shipments and longer/term contracts into refineries around the world.

Corn, Soybean, Wheat Prices May Slip in Next Decade (Update1) - BusinessWeek

USDA is forecasting lower prices for major grains as a result of new and higher yielding seeds. Also, it is expecting 35% of corn to be diverted to ethanol production. The acreage for corn is forecast to go up from current 86.5mn acres to 90 mn acres and then stabilize. more details on the Business Week story link below.

Corn, Soybean, Wheat Prices May Slip in Next Decade (Update1) - BusinessWeek: "The price paid to farmers for a bushel of corn, the most- valuable U.S. crop, will peak at $3.90 a bushel for grain planted this year and fall to $3.65 by 2018, the USDA said today in an annual 10-year baseline forecast."

NYMEX-Crude ends down on EIA build, China worries | Reuters

China's move has had a big impact on commodities prices today, oil and products being one sector hit hard by potential drop in demand as a result of this move. Also weighing on this has been the drop in the Euro and EIA stock builds

NYMEX-Crude ends down on EIA build, China worries | Reuters: "Concerns that China's unexpected move raising bank reserve
requirements would curb its growth rate, hurting global oil demand, also held down oil futures."

FT.com / UK - Rise in crude supplies puts pressure on oil

interesting how the oil trading desks and some of the oil trading shops have had huge gains in 2009

FT.com / UK - Rise in crude supplies puts pressure on oil: "Gunvor, the world's fourth-largest oil trader, said its profit rose 'significantly' last year.

The private company, which handles about a third of Russia's seabourne oil exports, did not provide further details on earnings but said its traded oil volumes were up 10 per cent to 2.3m barrels a day.

Gunvor chairman, said: '2009 has been a very good year.

'For 2010, we anticipate there will be a more competitive trading environment, with narrower margins.'

The world's largest oil traders - Vitol, Glencore, Trafigura, Gunvor and Mercuria - all made record profits last year, according to bankers familiar with their operations."

Famed Investor Jim Rogers Says Food Shortages Coming - DailyFinance

Famed Investor Jim Rogers Says Food Shortages Coming - DailyFinance: "A severe food shortage is on its way, according to well-regarded investor Jim Rogers. Food inventories are the lowest in decades and '[m]any farmers cannot get loans to buy fertilizer now, even though we have big shortages developing,' Rogers said on CNBC.

For investors, that could mean a buying opportunity in commodities, in particular coffee and cotton, Rogers said. In fact, he says commodities are a much better buying opportunity than stocks right now."

OpEdNews - Article: Afghanistan: only the first move in the grand chess game for control of Central Asian resources

OpEdNews - Article: Afghanistan: only the first move in the grand chess game for control of Central Asian resources: "Though not being reported in the mainstream American press, there is a very intense struggle going on between the U.S. and China to determine which nation will emerge as the dominant presence in Central Asia. These two economic giants, the U.S. declining and China rapidly growing, know full well that their economic future depends entirely on their ability to acquire critical resources; in the case of the U.S., it's primarily oil, while with China it's both oil and natural gas."

Neighbors Challenge Energy Aims in Bolivia - NYTimes.com

Bolivia's neighbors are cutting their own LNG import deals and reducing dependence on gas from Bolivia. The NYT story mentions how Bolivia wanted to export LNG to Mexico and USA via Chile as well at one point.

Bolivia could face economic uncertainty if its gas exports and gas demand drops.

Neighbors Challenge Energy Aims in Bolivia - NYTimes.com: "The new gas-import ventures in Brazil and Argentina, as well as two in Chile, once a potential market for Bolivian gas, all use ship-borne imports, in which the fuel is cooled into liquefied natural gas for transport from exporting countries and reheated on delivery. This increasingly common transport method has provided substantial competition with pipelines in some markets."

China's commodity imports soar in December - washingtonpost.com

China's commodity imports soar in December - washingtonpost.com: "China ended 2009 with record monthly imports of crude oil and soybeans and a strong appetite for iron ore and copper, while its aluminum and steel sectors saw a welcome increase in export volumes.

Crude oil imports averaged more than 5 million barrels per day for a month for the first time in December, up by more than a fifth from November at 21.26 million tons, while the total for 2009 rose 13.9 percent to 203.4 million tons."

Growing Demand For Soybeans Threatens Amazon Rainforest

Growing Demand For Soybeans Threatens Amazon Rainforest: "Image credit: Tiago Fioreze at Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license
Originally published at Plan B Updates
By Lester R. Brown
Some 3,000 years ago, farmers in eastern China domesticated the soybean. In 1765, the first soybeans were planted in North America. Today the soybean occupies more U.S. cropland than wheat. And in Brazil, where it spread [...]"

FT.com / Reports - Carbon trading: Emissions cuts at the lowest price – in theory

carbon trading might be the only optimal way out that connects different governments, regions etc in a manner that makes the financing work. taxing locally might work but it would be a very disjointed approach. emissions trading and getting the world markets to establish a carbon pricing might be the way that works for all, despite the many issues with it, including worries about how big banks and commodity traders will take advantage of it or the plethora of derivative structures that might be marketed based on the underlying carbon instrument.

FT.com / Reports - Carbon trading: Emissions cuts at the lowest price – in theory: "At Copenhagen, no firm decisions are likely to be taken on the details of how to ensure that finance is available, particularly in poor countries, to make the emissions cuts that will have to be laid out in any agreement.

Instead, world leaders are likely to sign up to a headline figure for the future financing required."

BBC News - Developing nations return to Copenhagen climate talks

talks are clearly running into problems in Copenhagen. it is evident that keeping Kyoto protocol in force and the financing issues for developing countries continue to be the major problem areas.

BBC News - Developing nations return to Copenhagen climate talks: "Talks at the UN climate summit resumed on Monday afternoon after protests from developing nations forced a suspension.
But talks have been limited to informal consultations on procedural issues, notably developing countries' demands for more time on the Kyoto Protocol.
The G77-China bloc, speaking for developing countries, said the Danish hosts had violated democratic process."

Interior Secretary Outlines How to Use North American Continent to Combat Climate Change

as per this article in the Scientific American, the Department of Interior is pursuing the idea of using public lands as carbon sinks, to site renewable energy projects including looking at geological formations to figure out potential carbon storage sites as well as via ecosystem restoration in various locations.

Interior Secretary Outlines How to Use North American Continent to Combat Climate Change: "

COPENHAGEN--U.S. forests and soils store some 90 billion metric tons of carbon, or 50 years worth of present U.S. emissions from fossil fuels , according to a new study from the U.S. Geological Survey. As negotiators here at the United Nations' climate summit continue to struggle to draft a global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions --including efforts to reduce deforestation and protect natural sinks--the U.S. Department of Interior is transforming the business of public lands and waters to help combat climate change . [More]

Copenhagen climate change summit in deadlock over rival texts - Times Online

it seems confusion is ruling large at the Copenhagen talks. this is all stuff that should have been sorted out months, if not years before these talks began. to have different proposal texts appear with 193 countries present with such a diversity of interests, even if they all agree on climate change, and with few hard numbers to go with makes this real tricky. it's hard to see a lot of success come out of this except some general agreement at best. REDD still stands out as the one with the best shot of getting good momentum.

Copenhagen climate change summit in deadlock over rival texts - Times Online: "The Copenhagen climate change summit is likely to end with two rival texts because the main countries cannot agree on the key question of how to share the burden of cutting emissions to a safe level.

The extent of the disagreement was exposed by the publication yesterday of two draft agreements, neither of which contained clear numbers or language on any of the most contentious issues, despite two years of negotiations before the summit.

The US refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol has forced negotiators to work on two separate texts and there is now little chance of the twin-track process producing a single document. The negotiators from 193 countries are hoping that the early arrival at the summit of several leaders next Wednesday, including Gordon Brown, will help to break the deadlock."

REDD may miss up to 80 percent of land use change emissions

this is pretty disturbing if REDD does miss such a high percent of emissions. while most at Copenhagen believe that REDD is one of the easier emission reduction approaches most nations might agree with, the analysis presented by the organization mentioned in the Mongabay article below says otherwise.

REDD may miss up to 80 percent of land use change emissions: "The political definition of 'forest' used in REDD (Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) threatens to undermine the program's objective to conserve ecosystems for their ability to sequester carbon, according to a new analysis by the Alternatives to Slash and Burn (ASB) Partnership for Tropical Forest Margins.

In an analysis of three Indonesian provinces using REDD proposals for carbon accounting, ASB found that REDD may miss up to 80 percent of the actual emissions due to land use change. The carbon accounting problems could be fixed, according to ASB, by expanding REDD's purpose from reducing emissions linked to deforestation (considering the problematic definition of forests) to reducing emission from all land use changes that either release or capture greenhouse gases, including but not limited to forests."

Looking to 2050: Where will food for 9 billion come from?

Article below highlights the stark realities and the seriousness of food issues we all face in the coming years. The new blog mentioned herein is another place where we can turn to get an idea of the ongoing discussions and proposed steps as well as actions being taken to avert a food crisis.

Looking to 2050: Where will food for 9 billion come from?: "
As world leaders, scientists and activists meet in Copenhagen to focus on the challenges of climate change, a related and equally difficult problem is looming for the global population: food security.

With the planet’s population projected to reach 9 billion by 2050 — that’s nearly 33 per cent greater than today — the demand for food will also grow, while climate change, development and other factors make suitable land for agriculture, and adequate water supplies, harder to come by.

To address this growing challenge, the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has launched a new website: Food Security.

The multimedia resource with numerous social media features aims to do more than simply provide an introduction to the food security issue. It will also feature a multi-author blog with posts from authors across the food security field, including researchers, farmers, industry leaders and consumers. The blog is designed to serve as an online destination for provocative debate about different views on food security and different approaches to feeding the growing world population.

“Feeding 9 billion mouths in the coming decades is going to require significant scientific progress, and changes that will affect all of us,” said Douglas Kell, chief executive of the BBSRC. “We can all recognise the importance of securing our food supplies but people disagree over the ways to do this and the approaches to take. The new blog on www.foodsecurity.ac.uk will be a place for those interested in this topic to provoke, engage, debate and discuss. If people have something important to say about food security we want to hear from them.”

The site also highlights numerous facts about the food security issue:

• More people die each year from hunger and malnutrition than from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined;
• The UN’s annual report on global food security confirms that more than one billion people — a sixth of the world’s population — are undernourished.
• Africa –the only populated continent that is not self-sufficient in food production — is expected to see a doubling of its population by 2050, from 1 billion to 2 billion;
• Demand for food is projected to increase by 50 per cent by 2030 and double by 2050;
• Farming accounts for 70 per cent of the world’s use of fresh water that is extracted globally for human use; and
• Agriculture is estimated to account for 10 to 12 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions (and land-use changes, such as deforestation for farming, adds much more).

What will the solution to such challenges look like? Will technology come to the rescue? Let us know what you think in the comments section below."

Oil Bulls in the China Shop: Will China Push Oil Prices Higher?

Oil Bulls in the China Shop: Will China Push Oil Prices Higher?: "
Will China come to the rescue of floundering oil prices, one way or the other?

Chinese demand for oil seems to be recovering rapidly. Bloomberg reports that Chinese crude imports surged 28% in November. For the year, oil imports are up 11% compared with last year—already a high-water mark for China’s oil appetite.

Resurgent demand in China—on the back of a strong manufacturing rebound–is the main reason the International Energy Agency is revising upward its forecast for 2010 global oil demand. The IEA increased its global demand forecasts by 130,000 barrels a day—with almost 100,000 barrels coming just from China, the WSJ reports.

For now, that isn’t giving much support to crude futures, which are slipping back down toward $70 a barrel in early Friday trading.

But the return of Chinese demand, such a big part of the price spikes in 2007 and 2008, is the main argument oil bulls have, given flat or declining demand for crude oil in rich, industrialized countries.

The bigger question is whether that will last. There are plenty of things that could push up Chinese demand, now and for the near future: Economic growth and surging auto sales, for starters.

But Beijing is also talking about making permanent the country’s recent efforts to clean up the economy by boosting energy-efficiency goals. Those plans—to sharply reduce the “carbon intensity” of the Chinese economy over the next decade—could take a bite out of the country’s future demand for oil, many analysts say. Even big oil producers are worried that Chinese green dreams, coupled with global efforts to tackle climate change, could seriously crimp demand for oil in the future.

There’s another possibility worth keeping in mind: Chinese demand could indeed trail off in the future and oil prices could still go up.

That’s if China returns to its manufacturing-heavy, export-driven model of economic growth—with the U.S. as consumer of last resort. A widening U.S. trade deficit, coupled with the budget deficit, could keep pressure on the dollar. And a weaker dollar—even with less oil demand growth than experts now expect—would likely push crude prices higher."

carbon trading markets in the dumps, waiting for clarification on regulations

carbon credit trading volumes are very depressed as are the prices. quite a few trading schemes have been floated in the past year or so but even the more established ones like the Chicago Climate Exchange and the European emissions trading are not faring well. 

prices per ton on CCE have had huge drops and volumes are stagnating. partnerships established in other countries haven't taken off and many continue to be on paper, waiting for clarifications. meanwhile, the arguments and debates go on and some as the recent issues with UN canceling/suspending funding for some wind power projects in China and the rejected climate legislation in Australia as well as increased scrutiny of carbon trading practices in Europe and elsewhere hasn't helped with the state of the market.

One would assume that polluters could use the current highly depressed prices to load up on carbon credit futures but it doesn't seem to be the case. most are still waiting

oil prices have a big drop

the oil inventories as reported by the US EIA showed an increase in inventory by 2.1 million barrels of crude oil, casting doubt on the economic recovery in the US and resulting in a sharp drop of crude oil prices on the Nymex.

The refinery utilization rate has dropped below 80% amidst rising gasoline inventories and lower utilization of crude oil at refineries.crude oil has stayed in a range between 70 and $82 per barrel. prices are expected to stay under some pressure with good supplies and somewhat stagnating demand. economic activity is picking up in India and China both for manufacturing sector and farming sector. Oil producers are expecting that the expanding economies in Asia will bolster crude prices further.

sustainable food production

Fortress trading  is committed to developing technologies for sustainable production of food in urban and rural settings. meeting the food needs of a growing, urban centric population requires continuous development and growth of projects, new ideas etc, all this while keeping a close eye on the renewable aspects, carbon foot print, embedded energy, logistics, processing and costs/scalability.

we are working with a variety of organizations to actively promote these technologies on the ground. we try to rapidly take an innovative design to prototype stage. current ideas being developed include various hydroponics and aquaponics applications; scalable/distributed production of biopesticides and bio fertilizers; mobile food processing, interesting ideas with irrigation, water conservation, rain water harvesting, carbon farming, cost effective and low carbon storage, logistics and distributed energy production and utilization in food production...

renewable energy

Fortress trading works with multiple  technology partners in selecting, helping develop and apply renewable energy technologies in its food and energy production deals. several cost effective solutions have been applied in its projects in developing countries that has helped generate local wealth while expanding commodity exports.

the team based in nyc stays in constant touch with the current development in the renewable energy space and is always on the lookout for cost effective, scalable solutions that could be tested on its sites in developing nations. mvp believes in monitoring technology risks and the constant changes going on in this space so as to select solutions that can scale up food and energy production in poor countries.

current areas of interest include biomass production for gasification, pyrolysis, potential ethanol and diesel from biomass, simple pellets/briquettes/co-firing biomass with coal, solar power concentrators, small/distributed hydro power, small scale wind etc.

trading

fortress trading is heavily involved in the trading, logistics and supply chain of various food and energy commodities including grains, oilseeds, agricultural products, various food ingredients etc. the desk works with partners in many of the developing countries where the supply sources are located and provides the trading platform, supply distribution and logistics.

energy trading

our trading desk deals in both physical and financial trades in various grades of crude oil, refined products-gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil and fuel oil, bunker fuel etc. we assist clients in hedging and structuring deals as well, along with advisory work.

our traders have a long history in oil & products trading, marketing, origination and structuring. we deal with many of the major oil companies, refineries, shippers, airlines, transport companies, commodity funds etc.

we have been increasingly sourcing physical crude oil- both sweet, sour and heavy grades from West Africa and South America and placing them via one off shipments and longer/term contracts into refineries around the world.

some current research activities

Here are some interesting ideas currently being developed by mvp network members:

• distributed,modular power/fuel generation

• designer biochar

• stabilization of pyrolysis oil

• aquaponics/hydroponics

• small-scale wind

• solar concentrators

• vertical farming

• Modular/green construction

• repurposing of used shipping containers

• urban farming

• mobile biopesticide and biofertilizer labs

• recycling plastics for fuel

• Modular, pre-fab housing

cashew nuts

cashew demand is increasing in North America, Europe and Japan. The production hasn't kept up in Africa and Asia. Demand for raw cashew nuts has been on the rise. It is increasingly being used alongside number of healthy substitutes to replace carbon and energy intensive meat and dairy products.

fortress trading is working with partners in West Africa to promote additional acreage plantings of cashew. it also assists local traders and farming groups in placing their produce into cashew nut processing plants especially in India. fortress trading is also providing access to markets in the US, Japan and countries in Europe to the cashier nut processing plants in India and elsewhere.

The team is able to source raw cashew nuts from a number of sources in West Africa and connects them to markets in India and elsewhere. It is also investing in the processing of the raw nuts to produce cashew kernels. these kernels are then placed into end-users in a variety of markets.