Merchandising

While the essence of trading is sourcing, shipping, and marketing, we take pride in continuously refining our market approach, and by doing so create value for all our counterparties in innovative ways.

With offices in 26 cities around the world and numerous exclusive agencies, we maintain a truly global footprint that is essential to developing in-house market intelligence and facilitating the anticipation of market trends. Strong relationships in the marketplace contribute to unveiling commercial opportunities and help to properly manage the various risks involved. Not only do we constantly perfect our expertise regarding the products that we trade, but given our broad product portfolio, we are also able to correlate one product with another. In order to have our business partners benefit equally from our relationship with World Perspectives, Inc., the consulting firm prepares a monthly commodity briefing for Trammo, which we share on a selective basis within our business network.

The ability to source products from different geographic regions and a multitude of different manufacturers coupled with the company’s global logistics network give Trammo a competitive price advantage over our competitors. We match complex customer requirements with tailored sourcing, thereby reducing demand uncertainty and ensuring steady supply. 

Over the many years of our existence, Trammo has developed a diverse, global customer base and an extensive network with strong long-term relationships. Many of our customers entrust us with their diverse requirements, thereby enabling us to combine many products in one single cost-efficient supply. Likewise, we seek to combine multiple product requirements from one and the same origin or instead to one and the same destination in one shipment, with the target of providing our business partners with a competitive package.

We offer our business partners the pricing structure that suits their needs best. A price fixed on the spot offers the advantage of eliminating any price uncertainty – our business counterparts know what to expect. Often, however, particularly for contracts with execution spread over a longer period of time, a tailored price formula may serve the interests of our business partners better: they benefit from a pre-defined calculation, yet future market trends are reflected in the pricing.

In today’s volatile market environment, price risk management tools are gaining increasingly in importance. For specific products, cash settled swaps may offer the risk reduction that our business partners are looking for. Trammo can help reduce price exposure by using financial hedging tools. Another good way of mitigating price risks is to rely on our multiple sourcing options, which our business partners often identify as a valuable asset in obtaining the most competitive pricing.

Our global, on-the-ground presence provides Trammo with market intelligence that regularly makes us the business partner of choice for manufacturers seeking a reliable counterparty for long-term off-take agreements for entire or partial production volumes. This ability has led us to successfully develop strategies that are mutually beneficial, yet mitigate commercial risks on both sides. To assist manufacturers in their diversified ventures, Trammo regularly participates in finance projects involving the construction, retrofitting, and modernization of production, transportation, storage, and other logistical facilities. Producers and project sponsors aiming to construct or upgrade production facilities choose Trammo as their preferred off-taker, since major financial institutions and government credit support agencies consider our commitment to be fully bankable. This enables them to raise competitive financing to accomplish and optimize their investments, usually on a non-recourse basis.

In some cases, customers feel uncertain about future volume requirements and hesitate to commit to a predefined tonnage at a predetermined price. A consignment agreement is a worthwhile alternative: it combines reliable and steady stock with maximum flexibility for the consignee, who only pays for what has been taken from stock, while at the same time improving cash flow. Trammo has accumulated significant knowledge in this field over the years and is happy to evaluate the suitability of this interesting option for customers. 

Given our broad product portfolio covering both raw material products as well as processed goods, it is not unusual that manufacturers entrust us with the supply of feedstock for their production and also request us to become the off-taker of the finished output products. We have accumulated significant experience in the area of tolling agreements over the years.