special - Alu-web.de

WIRTSCHAFT
schöpfungskette nachfolgen, wie die
Automobil(zuliefer)industrie, die
Aluminium zum Beispiel für ihren
Motorenguss einkauft.
Das Brokergeschäft von Sucden
liegt zwischen dem Einkauf und
Verkauf eines Unternehmens. Der
Aufwand im Unternehmen, Hedging-
Strategien zu begleiten, hält sich in
Grenzen, sagt Krügel: „Unsere Dienstleistung
heißt Absicherung; dabei gilt
es, den Aufwand möglichst klein zu
halten, aber effektiv zu gestalten.
Man braucht keinen großen Stab an
Mitarbeitern. Was wir unseren potenziellen
Neukunden empfehlen, ist,
zunächst mit kleineren Positionen
zu starten und in einer Anlaufphase
von einem halben bis einem Jahr
die internen Strukturen aufzubauen
und unterschiedliche Strategien auszutesten.“
Vergleichbare Absicherungsstrategien
wie bei Rohstoffen sind prinzipiell
auch für den Energieeinkauf
und Wechselkurs-Differenzgeschäfte
möglich. Während die Absicherung
gegen Währungsrisiken geübte Praxis
in den Unternehmen ist, so Krügel, sei
dies bei Energie und Metallen vielfach
nicht der Fall, trotz der in den letzten
Jahren massiv gestiegenen Energiepreise
und obwohl die Instrumente
die gleichen sind.
Nach Einschätzung von Krügel
verfolgen nur maximal 25 Prozent
der Unternehmen Risk-Management-
Strategien, wie hier skizziert. „Dabei
muss man nur verstehen, wie ein Future-Kontrakt
und eine Option funktionieren.
Das ist kein Buch mit sieben
Siegeln. Dann muss man mit seinem
Broker eine Strategie entwickeln,
die auf die eigene Geschäftstätigkeit
zugeschnitten ist und die man dann
konsequent befolgen muss. Das ist alles“,
so Krügel.
Was Sucden zu dem Geschäft beitragen
kann, lässt sich in sechs Punkten
zusammenfassen: Professionalität
in Handel und Ausführung, Marktkenntnis
und Börsenpräsenz, einzelne
Abteilungen für jeden wichtigen
Rohstoff, effiziente und transparente
Abwicklung und Buchhaltung, wettbewerbsfähige
Transaktionskosten
sowie detailliertes Research, Service
und Information.
company expects the price of aluminium
to fall and purchases 2,500dollar
call options with which to
hedge against the price going above
USD2,500 a tonne, at an aluminium
market price of USD2,450. Let us assume
that the premium is USD50 per
option. If the price at which the company
has to buy aluminium increases
to USD2,800 a tonne, the value of
the option less the premium is then
+USD250, while the increased cost of
purchasing the metal is USD350 compared
to the base price for the calculation
of USD2,450. The resulting total
loss on the position is thus USD100
(compared to a loss of USD300 for a
‘do nothing’ strategy). Even if the price
increases further, the loss on the position
is limited to USD100. If the aluminium
price remains unchanged at
USD2,450, the option is worth nothing
and the total cost compared to a
strategy of ‘doing nothing’ is USD50
(the premium). If the aluminium price
falls below USD2,400, the company
with the option also gains. If the price
is USD2,000, there is a plus of USD400
a tonne compared to the base price for
the calculation after the option premium
has been taken into account. To
summarise: In this example a company’s
risk is limited if the aluminium
price rises and if the price falls it also
benefits from the falling prices, albeit
not quite to the same extent as a the
company with a ‘do nothing’ strategy.
The example shows clearly that
the profit or loss of a hedging strategy
based on options is calculable from
the very beginning and the price risk
can be reduced to the desired level. It
is this in particular that offers companies
a high degree of planning reliability
and more flexibility in determining
their prices. The cost factors are
opportunity costs, temporary capital
commitment and brokerage fees. The
fees for the broker are of the order of
tenths of a percent.
The business with futures and options
has many facets: there are the
straightforward futures and options
models as well as models that are a
mixture of futures and options. “The
specific hedging strategy chosen depends
both on the objective and the
mentality of the customer in ques-
tion,” says Over. Every company that
is exposed to a raw-material price
risk is a potential customer: smelters,
fabricators, traders and remelters as
well as all of those companies located
downstream in the value chain, such
as the car industry and its sub-suppliers,
that have to purchase aluminium,
for example for their engine castings.
Sucden’s brokerage business is
positioned between a company’s purchasing
and sales. According to Krügel,
the effort a company has to invest to
supervise hedging strategies can be
kept to within reasonable limits: “Our
service is called hedging and the aim
is to keep the effort required to a minimum
but to organise it effectively. One
does not need a large team of employees.
What we advise potential new clients
to do is to first start with smaller
positions and during a start-up phase
of about six months to a year to establish
the necessary internal structures
and to try out different strategies.”
Hedging strategies comparable to
those used for raw materials are basically
also possible for purchasing
energy and currency transactions. As
Krügel points out, although hedging
against currency risks is established
practice in companies, this is often
not the case with energy and metals
despite the massive increases in the
price of energy in recent years and the
fact that in the end the instruments
are the same.
Krügel estimates that at the most
no more than 25 percent of companies
pursue risk management strategies
of the type outlined here. “One only
needs to understand how a futures
contract or an option works. It really
isn’t a closed book. One only has to
develop a strategy with one’s broker
that is tailored to one’s own business
activity and that one then has to follow
consistently. That’s all”, says Krügel.
What Sucden is able to contribute
can be summarised in six points:
professionalism in trading and implementation,
market knowledge and
involvement in the LME, separate
departments for each important raw
material, efficient and transparent
processing and accounting, competitive
transaction costs and detailed research,
service and information.
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18 ALUMINIUM · 12/2008