The Commodity Trading Hub — a part of the book Singapore as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos.
Part G examines Singapore as one of the world's leading commodity trading hubs, the counterpart to Geneva's trading sector.
This part belongs to Singapore as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos, published here in full, section by section.
From Entrepôt to Trading Hub: The Global Trader Programme
Singapore was founded as a place where goods changed hands. Two centuries later it is a place where commodities change owners, often without ever touching its shores. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingThe legacy of the entrepôt
The commercial identity of Singapore was defined at its foundation. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingThe Global Trader Programme
The modern incentive framework began in 1989. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingTax incentives and substance requirements
The Global Trader Programme is an administrative label. Its legal basis is section 43I of the Income Tax Act 1947, headed “Concessionary rate of tax for global trading company and qualifying company”. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingEnterprise Singapore and the trading sector
The agency that administers the programme has changed its name several times. Trade promotion was long the task of a statutory board that was later known as International Enterprise Singapore. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingMeasuring the weight of commodity trading
The simplest indicator of the trading hub is the number of companies under the programme. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingPractical consequences for trading companies
For a trading company considering Singapore, the programme is one element in a broader decision. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingFrom Entrepôt to Trading Hub: The Global Trader Programme: Singapore and Geneva compared
The comparison with Geneva shows two different paths to the same result. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingFrom Entrepôt to Trading Hub: The Global Trader Programme: summary
Singapore’s trading hub continues the commercial functions of the nineteenth-century entrepôt in a new form, with trading desks in the city managing cargoes that often sail directly between foreign… Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingOil: Refining, Storage and Asian Price Benchmarks
Singapore has no oil of its own. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingRefining on Pulau Bukom and Jurong Island
The oil business of Singapore began as a storage and distribution trade. In the early 1890s the London firm M. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingStorage and blending
Storage is the second pillar of the oil hub. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingPrice assessment and Asian benchmarks
Oil products in Asia are rarely sold at a fixed price. Most term contracts and many spot deals set the price by reference to published assessments, usually averaged over a pricing period. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingPaper markets and derivatives
The physical market in Singapore is surrounded by a much larger paper market. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingEnergy transition and the refining sector
Refineries and crackers are among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in Singapore. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingOil: Refining, Storage and Asian Price Benchmarks: practical consequences
For lawyers and advisers, the oil hub creates a recognisable set of questions. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingComparison with Geneva and other oil centres
The Geneva volume describes how independent oil traders established themselves in Switzerland from the 1960s and 1970s. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingOil: Refining, Storage and Asian Price Benchmarks: summary
Singapore’s oil business began in the early 1890s with a kerosene depot on Pulau Bukom and turned into refining when Shell opened the first refinery there on 26 July 1961, followed by Mobil, Esso… Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingBunkering: The World's Largest Bunkering Port
Every ship that passes through the Strait of Malacca must sooner or later take on fuel. For more than a century and a half, a large share of the world’s merchant fleet has done so in Singapore. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingSingapore as a bunkering port
Bunkering in Singapore began with coal. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLicensing of bunker suppliers
Bunkering in the port is regulated by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingQuality, quantity and fraud
For decades the most common complaint in Singapore bunkering was short delivery. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingAlternative marine fuels
The first great change in marine fuels came from the regulation of sulphur. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingBunkering disputes
The structure of the bunker market produces a characteristic type of dispute. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingBunkering: The World's Largest Bunkering Port: practical consequences
Singapore’s bunkering regime gives buyers substantial protection, but it works only if buyers use it. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingComparison with Geneva, Rotterdam and Fujairah
Geneva has no port, but it hosts many of the decision-makers of the bunker trade. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingBunkering: The World's Largest Bunkering Port: summary
Singapore owes its position as the world’s largest bunkering port, with record sales of 56.77 million tonnes in 2025, to its location on the Strait of Malacca, to the refineries, storage terminals… Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLNG, Metals and Agricultural Commodities
Oil made Singapore a trading hub, as the preceding chapters have shown. Refineries, storage tanks and bunker barges gave the city a physical market around which traders, banks and brokers settled. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLiquefied natural gas trading
Singapore has no gas fields of its own. From the 1990s it imported natural gas by pipeline from Malaysia and later from Indonesia, which allowed its power stations to switch from fuel oil to gas. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingMetals and minerals
Singapore produces no metal ores and refines almost none. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingPalm oil, grains and soft commodities
Singapore grows almost no food, yet it is the headquarters of some of the largest agricultural trading groups in the world. The connection began with palm oil. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingSustainability requirements in agricultural supply chains
The sustainability of agricultural supply chains became a public issue in Singapore through the haze. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingCarbon and the trading of environmental commodities
Carbon credits are the newest commodity traded from Singapore. Their market rests on law, since a credit has value only to the extent that a regulator or a buyer’s commitment recognises it. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLNG, Metals and Agricultural Commodities: practical consequences
The diversification of the hub creates opportunities and obligations for trading companies. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLNG, Metals and Agricultural Commodities: Comparison with Geneva
Geneva’s trading centre grew from grains and softs to oil and then to metals, in a sequence driven by firms that chose the city for its banks, its neutrality and its international organisations. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingLNG, Metals and Agricultural Commodities: summary
Singapore has diversified its trading hub beyond oil into liquefied natural gas, metals, agricultural commodities and carbon credits, in each case with the help of targeted state measures. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingThe Trading Houses: Global Players and Asian Champions
A commodity hub is made of firms. Tax incentives, storage tanks, banks and courts create the conditions for trade. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingThe Asian offices of the global trading houses
The global trading houses came to Singapore for the same reason that the agency houses of the nineteenth century had come, which Chapter IV of Part A and Chapter II of Part B described: the city… Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingAsian agricultural champions
The agricultural champions of Singapore have roots in the Chinese trading networks of Malaya, which Chapter V of Part A and Chapter IV of Part B described. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingState-owned and national trading companies
The third group of firms in the Singapore hub belongs to states. National oil companies from China, the Gulf, India and Southeast Asia have established trading subsidiaries in Singapore. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingGovernance and ownership structures
The large independent houses are owned by their managers and employees. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingSingapore and Geneva as trading hubs compared
Geneva and Singapore are two of the principal homes of commodity trading, together with London, Houston and Dubai. Read more Singapore · Commodity TradingThe Trading Houses: Global Players and Asian Champions: summary
Singapore’s commodity hub consists of some 400 firms, more than 60 per cent of them of Asian origin, ranging from the Asian offices of the global houses to Asian agricultural groups, state-linked… Read more