I was involved in the nickel business in the late 1980s when I was working for Philipp Brothers and stationed in the London office. The company was one of the world's leading physical commodities traders, sourcing raw materials from producers around the globe, and selling them to consumers.
At the time, the company entered into a pre-export finance deal with the Russians on their nickel output. In Russia, nickel production comes from the Norilsk region of Siberia. Since Russian credit was more than problematic in those days, Philipp Brothers took a three-month credit risk by