Deal news: Brazilian commodities open up with Bahia Specialty Cellulose and Vigolo PXFs
Bahia Specialty Cellulose and Vigolo-Bon Jesus have both launched into syndication with PXFs led by WestLB, in deals valued at $500m and $60m respectively.

People & places: Veetil and Hermawan appointed to cash management roles at HSBC
Sunil Veetil and Herani Hermawan have been appointed to new global payment and cash management roles at HSBC.

People & places: Juultje van der Wijk takes over from Frank Heusdens at ING
Juultje van der Wijk has taken over from Frank Heusdens as Global Head of Trade Finance Services at ING Commercial Banking.

Deal news: Emirates Steel signs $2.2bn ECA-backed deal
Emirates Steel, the biggest steel producer in the United Arab Emirates, has secured $2.2bn in project finance, incorporating $500m secured by Italian export credit agency Sace.

People & places: EBRD supports largest aluminium producer in central Europe
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has put together a $180m refinancing package for Romania’s Alro.

Deal news: BP raises $5bn in two PXFs
Oil giant BP has raised $5bn in two pre-export finance deals to improve its liquidity following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and its purchase of assets from Devon Energy.

Deal news: Metinvest completes $700m PXF
Metinvest, the Ukrainian iron, steel and coking coal company controlled by Rinat Akhmetov’s SCM Holdings, has closed a $700m pre-export finance facility.

People & places: Four join Deutsche Bank transaction banking team in Asia
Deutsche Bank has announced a number of new appointments in its Global Transaction Banking team in Asia. Nicole Wong, Belinda Han, Le Nhat Phuong Hong, and Sang-Joon Park have moved to new, bigger roles in Deutsche in Singapore, China, Vietnam and South Korea.

People & places: Mark Fenner promoted at BNYM
Mark Fenner has been promoted to Head of Relationship Management and Sales for Treasury Services across the Middle East and Africa region at BNY Mellon.

People & places: Russian grain export ban causes soft commodities spike
The Russian government has banned the export of wheat, corn, barley, rye and grain after a prolonged drought, followed by wildfires, devastated crops.

People & places: Four new appointments to Deutsche's transaction banking team in Asia
Deutsche Bank has announced a number of new senior appointments in its Global Transaction Banking team in Asia.

People & places: Metinvest completes $700m PXF
Metinvest has closed a $700m pre-export finance facility – the largest for a Ukrainian corporate since 2007, when Metinvest signed a $1.5bn syndicated loan facility.

People & places: Soft commodity prices surge as Russia bans grain exports
Soft commodity have surged in price after the Russian government banned the export of wheat, corn, barley, rye and grain. The order was made after a prolonged drought, followed by wildfires, devastated crops.

People & places: Mark Fenner promoted to Head of Relationship Management, Middle East, at BNYM
Mark Fenner has been promoted to Head of Relationship Management and Sales for Treasury Services across the Middle East and Africa region at BNY Mellon. Based in Dubai, Fenner will lead relationship and sales teams in Beirut, Cairo, Dubai, Istanbul and Johannesburg.

TFR Awards 2010: Most Innovative Trade Bank
There are few banks in the world that come close to Citi in terms of its sheer size and breadth. And during the past year or two this scale has been a positive advantage.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Bank in Structured Trade Finance
After last year’s impressive haul in the TFR Awards, this year’s sole win as the Best Bank in Structured Trade Finance may seem less impressive, but nevertheless sums up Deutsche Bank’s greatest strength.

TFR Awards 2010 : Best Export Credit Agency
No branch of government did more to keep the wheels of trade turning than ECAs and with Germany among the world’s largest exporters, the response of the German Export Credit Guarantee Scheme was pivotal.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Developmental Financial Institution
The Award for Best Developmental Financial Institution is one of the few that almost seems to be reserved for EBRD.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Local Trade Bank in Brazil
Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, just as global trade was starting to crumble Brazil’s Banco Itaú was completing a chunky $12.5bn merger with local rival Unibanco.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Local Trade Bank in China
Was it really just five years ago when, in the run-up to the Bank of China’s initial public offering, RBS took a $3.1bn stake in the bank, equivalent to a shareholding of about 10%?

TFR Awards 2010: Best Local Trade Bank in India
ICICI Bank is the fourth largest bank in India by assets, but its largest by market capitalisation. It is also, arguably, its most high profile and most ambitious.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Local Trade Bank in Russia
The robust pace of growth of the Russian economy during 2010 is arguably one of the success stories of the past year.

TFR Awards: Best Trade Bank in Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS
Eastern Europe was one of the regions hit hardest by the financial crisis. However, with the support of the EBRD and banks such as UniCredit, the lifeblood of trade was kept flowing.

TFR Awards: Best Trade Bank in Oil and Energy
Over the past two years, the market has seen an understandable flight to quality. And what better quality investment could there be than in oil and energy?

People & places: Ricky Kaura appointed regional treasury services head by JP Morgan
Ricky Kaura has been promoted to regional head for JP Morgan Treasury Services, covering Indochina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

People & places: Four join ANZ global export finance team
Simon Jones, Steven Mulder, Sonja Schoentag and Stephen Au have been appointed to senior management roles within ANZ’s global Structured Asset and Export Finance team.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Factoring Institution
It’s a traditional assumption that when an economy falls into recession, demand for factoring increases, and declines as recovery gathers pace.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Online Trade Provider
This award has traditionally been battled out between JP Morgan and BNY Mellon – with JP Morgan just having the edge in the previous two years. So this big win for BNY Mellon will be all the sweeter.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Credit and Political Risk Insurance Broker
This time last year, the trade credit and political risk insurance market was as uncertain as any within the broad trade finance world.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Credit and Political Risk Insurance Underwriter
The year 2009 was not of vintage quality for trade credit and political risk insurers. Not surprisingly, claims went through the roof, some no doubt mulled quitting the market altogether.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Finance Boutique
No one should be fooled by London Forfaiting Company’s name. While it did, indeed, make its reputation with a focus on forfaiting, under FIMBank’s ownership it has become a much broader business.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Forfaiting Institution
UniCredit may not be the best-known name in forfaiting, but it has served the forfaiting needs of both corporates and financial institutions across Eastern and Western Europe for many years.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Law Firm in Trade Finance
Could there be any more secure form of employment than lawyer in trade finance? Trade may occasionally slow down, but it never stops.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Services Provider
While some groups may dominate the trade services market globally, there remain many major banking organisations with equally well-regarded trade services offerings.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Bank in the Middle East
The battle for the Award of Best Trade Bank in the Middle East is always an intriguing one. In recent years, Trade Bank of Iraq has carried it off. Yet increasing prosperity across the Middle East has brought to the fore more contenders.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Technology Provider
When the economy goes pear-shaped, it is always the big investments that get cut first. And given the major commitment required to implement new software, it is little surprise that this is often one of the first areas that a bank will looking to for savings.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Bank in Africa
Africa is often cited as the continent of the future with respect to trade finance, with some cynics suggesting that it always will be.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Bank for Export Finance
The year 2009 was the year of export finance, when banks’ export finance departments really kept the wheels of trade turning after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Bank in Western Europe
It must be every CEO’s worst nightmare: to wake up one morning and find that all their customers have gone. While that didn’t quite happen following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the fall in trade certainly did present a challenge to exporters.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Bank in Latin America
BBVA is perennially the one to beat in Latin America – winner of the TFR Award for the Best Trade Bank in Latin America for the past six years. And its emphatic win this year reflects how the bank has enjoyed ‘a good financial crisis’.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Bank in Asia
HSBC arguably enjoys the best of all worlds, with its strong presence straddling North America, Europe and Asia – and, especially, China.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Bank in Metals and Minerals
There are few banks more closely associated with metals and minerals than ING, which is no surprise given how comprehensively the bank, as a whole, covers the sector.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Bank in North America
It is easy to forget that the most important economic zone in the world remains North America. After all, the US alone – the ‘engine of the world economy’ – accounts for one-fifth of global output and what US banks do today can make a big difference to the world’s prosperity.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Bank in the World
The Award for the Best Trade Bank in the World was, predictably, fiercely contested by a number of big-name banks, but JP Morgan came out on top, despite a strong challenge from BNY Mellon.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Trade Bank in Soft Commodities
There is probably no bank in the world more closely associated with soft commodities than Rabobank – and with little wonder, given that the bank has its roots in food and agriculture.

TFR Awards 2010: Best Bank for Supply Chain Finance
It takes something particularly special to win the Award for Best Bank for Supply Chain Finance from BNY Mellon, but since Wells Fargo’s merger with Wachovia, the bank has been gaining traction across the world, particularly in supply chain finance.

People & places: HSBC consolidates Singapore team
HSBC is consolidating its Global Payments and Cash Management team in Singapore in an internal reshuffle that will see staff move from London, Australia, Japan, India and Hong Kong.

TFR Awards: The results are in…
The votes have been counted and checked, and now the results for the TFR Awards 2010 are in. Based entirely on your votes and nothing else, the winners in all 30 categories are...

Deal news: IFC provides $40m guarantee for Bank Saint Petersburg
IFC has extended a $40m guarantee facility to Bank Saint Petersburg to expand access to trade finance for small and medium-sized businesses in Russia’s north-west region.

Deal news: Cocobod purchases fall 10% as new PXF opens
The 2010-11 Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) pre-export finance kicks off following a season in which purchases by purchases fell by almost 10%.

Deal news: Metinvest secures $300m PXF
Metinvest has concluded a three-year, $300m syndicated structured pre-export finance facility Deutsche Bank has been mandated as coordinating mandated lead arranger and bookrunner.

Deal news: Promsvyazbank raises $250m syndicated loan
Promsvyazbank has raised a $250m syndicated loan. Bank management selected to close the transaction as a club deal, which involved the EBRD and 11 international banks.

Deal news: Noble Group mandates $1.2bn guarantee facility
Singapore-based commodity trader Noble Group has signed a mandate letter for a $1.2bn committed guarantee facility, which will amend and restate an existing $800m facility.

Deal news: Gazprom Neft PXF enters senior syndication
Senior syndication of Gazprom Neft’s $1bn, five-year pre-export finance facility was launched today by initial MLAs and bookrunners BTMU, Natixis and Société Générale.

Opinion: Midcap blues
BNY Mellon’s Dominic Broom examines the difficulties facing many midcap companies.

People & places: News-in-brief
Evraz repays $1bn VEB loan... HSBC appoints Mark Troutman to sales role in Southern Asia... Rabo signs MoU with Agricultural Bank of China... The Benche expands to encompass custody services...

People & places: Chubb checks out of PRI and trade credit markets
Chubb Group of Insurance Companies has quit the political risk insurance (PRI) and structured trade credit (STC) business with immediate effect.

People & places: David Tsoi and Ying Hung Wong join HSBC
David Tsoi and Ying Hung Wong have joined HSBC’s Global Trade and Supply Chain’s Asia/Pacific business development team, arriving from JP Morgan and Citibank, respectively.

People & places: Sterling Factors hires Nasim Siddiqi
Nasim Siddiqi has been appointed Vice President and Director of Business Development for Sterling Trade Capital, a division of Sterling Factors specialising in import trade finance.

People & places: Beazley raises threat levels for South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Nigeria
Insurance underwriter Beazley has raised the threat levels on a number of emerging markets in Africa, including Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa.

People & places: JP Morgan appoints Thomas DuCharme Head of Asia Treasury and Securities
Thomas DuCharme has moved from Deutsche Bank to JP Morgan as the bank’s new Chief Executive Officer in the Treasury and Securities Services business in Asia/Pacific.

People & places: Afghanistan’s $1 trillion of mineral wealth
Afghanistan could be sitting on up to $1 trillion of mineral deposits, according to US and British geologists.