Trafigura profit falls, oil volumes reach record

Daily trading tops 4 mln barrels for first time.

Swiss trading house Trafigura reported a 10 percent fall in first-half profit on Tuesday despite trading volumes in oil rising to a new record.

The company said its net profit for October to March was $602 million, down from a year earlier but up 40 percent from the second half of 2015.

Core earnings or earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 27 percent to $821 million from $1.12 billion but rose 11 percent versus the second half of 2015.

While oil trade rose significantly, Chief Executive Jeremy Weir attributed weaker results to a calmer market after an exceptionally strong 2015.

"It is important to note that H1 2015 was impacted by an exceptional volatility and a deep contango price structure which created significant trading opportunities in crude and product markets leading to record profit figures," Weir said in a statement.

Gross profit of $1.17 billion fell 23 percent but was up 8 percent from the second half of 2015.

Group revenue fell by 9 percent to $44 billion as higher volumes were more than offset by lower commodity prices, the company said.

"Trading was especially strong in the oil and petroleum products division, where volume handled daily topped 4 million barrels for the first time in Trafigura's history," it said.

That "was 46 percent higher than the first half of 2015, having grown consistently for the past four years and doubled since 2012," it said.

Trafigura is one of the world's top trading houses alongside Vitol and Glencore (GLCNF). Vitol, the world's largest house, trades around 6 million barrels per day.

The period ending March 31 saw Trafigura expand its business in Russia by adding new refined products purchase contracts to its existing crude ones with Russian state oil firm Rosneft .

It ramped up crude flows from Colombia and from the Middle East while a condensate splitter in Corpus Christi, Texas, in which Trafigura holds a 20 percent stake, became operational.

Trafigura said it widened its business in Asia by adding direct oil sales to Chinese private refineries after Beijing allowed so-called "teapot" refiners to begin importing crude last year.

Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Julia Payne