Reports carried out by financial analyst Dealogic have shown a massive 55% drop in global trade finance volume.
The report found that global trade finance volume for Q1 reached just US$20bn, compared with US$44.4bn in Q1 2009 and the lowest quarterly volume since the first quarter of 2006.
In total, 122 deals were signed in Q1 of this year, a drop from just under 190 deals in the first quarter of 2009, and the lowest quarterly deal count since 2004.
Just under a quarter of all trade finance loans during Q1 are attributed to ECA guarantees which is a significant decrease to the 40% of trade finance loans from ECAs in the last quarter of 2009.
Nord Stream’s US$5.3bn facility, guaranteed by Germany’s ECA Euler Hermes, Italy’s ECA Sace and the Federal Republic of Germany and reported by GTR, made up over a quarter of total trade finance volume and was the largest trade finance loan of this year’s Q1.
The Tobolsk-Polymer and Paiton Energy deals, at US$1.49bn and US$1.03bn respectively, were the second and third largest trade finance loans.
These three deals helped secure the utility and energy sector as the leading industry sector for trade finance loans, with US$14.7bn via 14 deals signed; this is up from just US$635mn through five deals in Q1 of 2009.
The most active nation in the trade finance market was Brazil, with 15 deals; this is up from eight deals in the same period of 2009.
The US came second with nine deals, a 50% decrease from 18 in Q1 of last year.
The bank who can boast being the leading MLA, including and excluding bilateral loans, is BNP Paribas, who lent out US$2.2bn and US$1.5bn with market shares of 11.2% and 9.1% respectively.
Continuing its commitment to providing trade finance, BNP Paribas also topped the MLA ranking for all ECA-backed loans with US$1.7bn and a 14.8% market share.
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