Commodity traders made higher profits than the banks

 According to an investigative piece in the Financial Times

The world's top commodities traders have pocketed nearly $250bn over the last decade, making the individuals and families that control the largely privately-owned sector big beneficiaries of the rise of China and other emerging countries. The net income of the largest trading houses since 2003 surpasses that of the combination of mighty Wall Street banks Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, or that of an industrial giant like General Electric. They made more money than Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford Motor, BMW and Renault combined. A review by the Financial Times of thousands of pages of companies' filings and non-public documents marks the first comprehensive account of the industry. The revelation of the traders' profitability will heighten calls for greater transparency from an industry that although central to the global economy is little understood and largely unregulated. The review casts light on an era of remarkable growth in the sector that began in 2000 - when it made just $2.1bn in profit - and massively expanded the trading groups' influence.  
 
 Profit margins are falling in the industry because of slowing growth in international economies and increased competition.  Still.....

Despite the stalling of profit growth and the fall in return on equity, the industry remains hugely profitable. The heads of some of the top trading houses - including Ivan Glasenberg of Glencore, Richard Elman of Noble Group and Claude Dauphin of Trafigura - have became billionaires, while families such as the Cargills and MacMillans behind Cargill have seen their wealth rise enormously.

The review includes financial details of companies with different business models, from pure-play commodities trading houses to groups that, on top of trading, have also invested in production assets. The companies are Glencore, Vitol, Trafigura, Mercuria, Gunvor, Cargill, Bunge, Archer Daniel Midland, Louis Dreyfus, Wilmar, Noble, CHS, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Itochu, Sumitomo, Marubeni, GrainCorp, Olam and Traxys.

But the review excludes the trading operations that are part of much larger oil, gas and utility groups - such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell of the UK, Total and EDF of France, Eon and RWE of Germany and Lukoil and Gazprom of Russia. Those groups often overshadow the trading houses in oil. Industry estimates put the net income of those trading operations last year at about $5bn, well below the peak of 2008-09 of more than $10bn, but the exact level is difficult to ascertain.

The review also excludes banks, because their focus is on derivatives, rather than physical trading. But the trend among banks, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, chimes with the overall trend. Bankers said total commodity revenues dropped in 2012 to about $8bn, down from a peak of $15bn in 2007.

See link here.