A New Chapter in Ghana: Welcoming Shiko Ghosh as CEO of Gapuma Ghana Limited
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Shiko Ghosh as Chief Executive Officer of Gapuma Ghana Limited. Shiko steps into the role at an important moment for our operations in Ghana, a country woven into Gapuma’s story from the very beginning. He will work under Kishor Ubrani, who continues as Managing Director, and together they will lead the next chapter of our presence in one of West Africa’s most dynamic markets. To mark the occasion, we are sharing a short film – the first of three over the coming days – introducing Shiko and the vision he brings to the role. Welcome aboard, Shiko. We are glad to have you with us.
Ghana: Where it all began, and where we headed next
There are companies that arrive in a market, and there are companies that were born in one. For Gapuma Group, Ghana is the latter. When our founder, Jack Bardakjian, started the business in 1999, the very first trade was in Ghana – a decision he took, in his own words, “against all the advice and all the predictions.” Twenty-six years on, that instinct has become the foundation of everything we are: an international commodities group sourcing from more than thirty countries and delivering to over fifty, with an active in-country presence in West Africa that traces directly back to where we began. So when Ash Unadkat, our Office and Quality Manager, made his first overseas trip on behalf of the company this month – accompanied by our Procurement Consultant, Raj Thakkar – it was no accident that the destination was Accra. You return to your roots when you want to grow. The timing could hardly be richer. Ghana stands at a genuinely interesting moment. The 24-hour economy initiative, the Accra–Kumasi Expressway, and continued development across the gold, oil, energy, cocoa, and financial sectors are reshaping the commercial landscape – the same sectors that have anchored the bilateral relationship between Ghana and the United Kingdom for generations. That relationship runs deep. Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African nation to win independence from colonial rule, in March 1957 – a milestone that made it a trailblazer for a continent. The bonds forged since, in language, trade, the Commonwealth, and a vast and vibrant diaspora, remain among the closest the UK holds anywhere in Africa. Our London-based Ghanaian colleague, Yannick Annor, captured that spirit beautifully after meeting the President of the Republic of Ghana in London on 31 May. He wrote of a diaspora encouraged to return, invest, and bring their knowledge home – and of his own reasons, as a French-Ghanaian, for choosing the UK precisely because it kept him close to Ghana. “We all have a role to play in shaping the future of our country,” he said. We could not agree more, and we are proud to play our small part. And then there is the football. In exactly twenty days, on 23 June, the Black Stars meet England at Gillette Stadium in their first-ever competitive fixture between the two nations. Whatever the scoreline, there is something fitting about it: two countries bound by history, meeting on the world’s biggest stage, just as one of them welcomes us back to where our story started. From a single trade in 1999 to a quarter-century of partnership – Ghana, it has always been you. 🇬🇭
🛢️ GAPUMA GROUP | MARKET INTELLIGENCE | 20 MAY 2026
Hormuz, Beijing and Moscow: The Geopolitics of Oil Are Being Rewritten in Real Time The movement of two Chinese supertankers through the Strait of Hormuz today – the Yuan Gui Yang and Ocean Lily, carrying approximately 4 million barrels of crude after waiting in the Gulf for more than two months – has sent an immediate and unmistakeable signal to commodity markets. Brent crude fell to as low as $110.16 a barrel on the news. This is not merely a shipping story. It is a geopolitical statement. The vessels’ passage comes as President Trump and President Xi concluded a two-day summit in Beijing, with a White House official describing the talks as “good.” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that China would work behind the scenes to help reopen the strait, noting that Beijing has “a much bigger interest in reopening the strait than the US does.” Beijing, characteristically, said nothing publicly about Hormuz – Chinese state media reported only that the leaders “exchanged views on major international and regional issues, such as the Middle East situation.” Silence, in diplomacy, is often the loudest language. Iran has reportedly sought to implement a toll system for vessels crossing Hormuz – a brazen assertion of sovereign authority over an international waterway that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply. That Chinese-flagged supertankers are now moving freely while broader restrictions remain in place is a pointed reminder of where true leverage lies. Meanwhile, closer to home, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has authorised the import of Russian-refined diesel and jet fuel into the UK indefinitely, alongside a temporary licence permitting the maritime transport of Russian LNG from the Sakhalin-2 and Yamal terminals. The government frames it as pragmatism. Treasury Minister Dan Tomlinson told Sky News the government was “acting pragmatically to insulate British citizens from the economic fallout of the Middle East conflict.” Critics – not least opposition leader Kemi Badenoch – see it differently: as analysts have noted, from Moscow’s perspective, it demonstrates that Western countries are “not that committed to a sanctions regime” when their own consumers feel the pinch. The broader picture is stark. Global oil supply has declined by 12.8 mb/d in total since February, with output from Gulf countries affected by the Strait’s closure running 14.4 mb/d below pre-war levels. The IEA projects a decline of 3.9 mb/d on average across 2026, assuming flows gradually resume from June. The United Nations has already cut its global growth forecast to 2.5% this year, against an estimated 3% last year, citing higher energy costs and weaker trade. For commodities and futures desks, the key questions now are whether today’s tanker movements represent a genuine reopening or a bilateral Chinese carve-out – and whether the gap between the two matters less than markets think. Wood Mackenzie has estimated Brent could approach $200 a barrel if the Strait remains largely shut until the end of the year. The downside scenario, by contrast, assumes a rapid diplomatic resolution that supply chains are ill-prepared to absorb smoothly. At Gapuma Group, we are watching these developments closely across energy, commodities and futures markets. The rules of the game are changing – and the players setting them are not all where they used to be. For market intelligence, trading insights and strategic analysis, connect with the Gapuma Group team.
Gapuma Group Acquires Equity Stake in Servaco PPS, Ghana’s Leading Industrial and Mining Supply Company
PRESS STATEMENT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1 May 2026 Gapuma Group, the London-based multinational commodities company serving customers through its warehousing and distribution network, today announces the acquisition of an equity stake in Servaco PPS Limited (SPPS), one of West Africa’s foremost industrial and mining supply companies. Founder Rudolph Opata Matey retains his stake and continues as Managing Director. The partnership represents Gapuma’s most significant strategic investment to date on the African continent, and marks a new chapter in the Group’s long-standing commitment to building durable, operational businesses across emerging markets. Servaco PPS – headquartered in Tema, Ghana – was founded in 1998 and has grown over more than two decades into the region’s most comprehensive industrial supply and services company. Operating across Ghana, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso, it serves the mining, quarrying, construction, oil and gas, marine, power, water and telecoms sectors, supplying products from over 30 of the world’s leading industrial brands. Its subsidiary, Servmet Technical Services, provides specialist equipment repair, refurbishment and engineering services, including a newly inaugurated engineering workshop in Ghana. Jack Bardakjian, Group Managing Director of Gapuma, said: “SPPS has built something genuinely impressive – a business with real roots, real clients and a reputation earned through consistent delivery in one of Africa’s most demanding industrial environments. Our role is not to change what works, but to give Rudolph and his team the operational backbone and supply chain infrastructure to execute at a higher level. This is exactly the kind of partnership we have been looking for in West Africa.” Rudolph Opata Matey, Managing Director of Servaco PPS, said: “This partnership enables SPPS to deliver even greater value to our customers while building a stronger, more sustainable business. Gapuma’s operational expertise complements our deep knowledge of Ghana’s industrial and mining sectors. Together, we are better positioned to meet the evolving needs of our customers and create opportunities for our team.” The investment will strengthen SPPS’s working capital base, enhance its procurement and supply chain capabilities, and support further expansion across Ghana and West Africa. Gapuma brings to the partnership its global sourcing network – spanning more than 50 countries – and its established expertise in procurement, logistics and supplier development across Africa, Asia and Europe. Current management and staff remain fully in place. Day-to-day operations continue under the same leadership, with planned growth in technical and commercial capabilities to follow. About Gapuma Group Founded in London in 1999, Gapuma Group is an award-winning sourcing, procurement and logistics specialist with global reach. The Group sources products from more than 30 countries and delivers to over 50 countries worldwide, with particular depth of experience across Africa. Operating from its London headquarters, Gapuma serves clients across multiple sectors – including industrial, chemical, agricultural and energy – managing every link in the global supply chain from procurement and finance to logistics and final delivery. www.gapuma.com About Servaco PPS Limited Servaco PPS Limited is a leading Ghanaian provider of industrial products, technical services and supply chain solutions, serving the mining, quarrying, construction, oil and gas, marine, power, water and telecoms sectors across West Africa. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Tema, Ghana, the company operates through strategic hubs in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso, and supplies products from more than 30 of the world’s leading industrial brands. Its subsidiary, Servmet Technical Services, delivers specialist engineering and equipment services to major mining and industrial clients across the region. www.servaco.com.gh
Gapuma at ChinaPlas 2026 – See You in Shanghai
16 April 2026 We are delighted to announce that Gapuma will be represented at ChinaPlas 2026 in Shanghai next week (21-24 April), where our Purchasing Director, Russell Brill, and Head of Polymers, Mihael Nahmias, will be in attendance. ChinaPlas is one of the most significant events in the global plastics and rubber industry calendar – a unique opportunity to connect with the brightest minds in the business, explore the latest innovations shaping our industry, and strengthen the relationships that drive it forward. For those of us who believe in the power of face-to-face dialogue, there is truly no substitute. Gapuma’s presence at events such as this reflects our enduring commitment to the industry we serve – a commitment to staying at the forefront of market developments, fostering long-term partnerships, and delivering the very best for our customers and suppliers across the globe. If you or your colleagues are also attending ChinaPlas this year, we would love to connect. Please do reach out to Russell or Mihael directly – we look forward to seeing you in Shanghai.
Welcome to Luka
7 April 2026 We are delighted to welcome Luka MacInnes-Bouffard to Gapuma as our new Junior Trader. Luka joins us from the UK Civil Service Fast Stream, where he was working as a Policy Analyst at the Home Office on Police Reform – a prestigious programme that many would be reluctant to leave. But Luka’s sights are firmly set on commodities, and we are very glad they are. As founder and president of the Oxford Commodities Society – the first of its kind at the university – and author of a Substack analysing global energy and commodity markets, he arrives with genuine passion for the sector as well as a sharp analytical mind. A first-class History graduate from Oxford, Luka will begin with a structured orientation period, shadowing our Operations, Finance and Trading divisions before taking up his core responsibilities: maintaining and developing our customer database and building relationships with our longstanding clients. He will be working under the guidance of our Purchasing Director, Russell Brill. In mid-May, Luka will also begin the Level 4 Diploma in International Trade with the Institute of Export and International Trade – a qualification that will provide a solid grounding in the practical disciplines that underpin everything we do at Gapuma. Please join us in wishing Luka every success. We think he is going to go far.
The Man Who Could Build A House Out of Gold
5 March 2026 Imagine you needed 16,000 kilograms of gold for a construction project. You could call Joy Alukkas. He already has it. The Kerala-born tycoon built one of the world’s largest family-owned jewellers from origins that could hardly be more modest. His father started the first jewellery showroom in 1956 – a modest business in Thrissur, Kerala, with roots not in gold but in umbrella manufacturing and stationery. Joy entered the gold trade as a teenager, helping his father at 14, and never completed his pre-degree education. In 1987, he flew to Abu Dhabi – his first ever flight – with several doubts and questions in his head. What followed was one of the great entrepreneurial stories of the Gulf. Today the Joyalukkas Group spans around 200 stores across the UAE, India, and the US, holding nearly 16,000 kg of gold – jewellery and bars combined. Forbes places his net worth at $4.4 billion, ranking him among the 50 richest people in India. He didn’t get here smoothly. When the Gulf War broke out in 1990, it disrupted everything and forced him back to India – but a resilient Joy returned to the Gulf months later and re-established his footprint. His own account of that journey is characteristically blunt: “My success did not come overnight. There were challenges, but I faced them head-on.” Now he has something important to say about gold itself – and this is where it gets serious. Speaking to Bloomberg in Dubai, Alukkas was clear: “Whenever global tensions rise, people turn to gold as a safe investment, which pushes prices higher.” He added that over the next two to three years, until the US economy and global conditions improve, gold prices are unlikely to see a major decline. He is not alone in that view. J.P. Morgan forecasts gold pushing towards $5,000 per ounce by the fourth quarter of 2026, with $6,000 a possibility longer term, driven by sustained central bank and investor demand. Gold is currently trading at around $5,161 per ounce – up dramatically from $2,639 at the start of 2025. The lesson from the man who holds 16 tonnes of the stuff? In a world of geopolitical fracture, trade wars, military strikes, and dollar anxiety, gold isn’t a relic – it’s a refuge. And the price of that refuge is still rising.
Did you know you can trade lean hogs on the stock market? 🐷
25 February 2026 No, really. Alongside live cattle, oats, frozen orange juice and cocoa futures, lean hog contracts are genuinely traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange – in lots of 40,000 pounds, no less. We’re not making this up. It turns out the world of commodity trading goes way beyond the gold bars and oil barrels most people picture. Here are five “exotic” soft commodities that serious traders are watching right now: ☕ Coffee – A billion daily drinkers means relentless demand. But Brazilian soil moisture levels, Vietnamese harvest delays and tropical storms all move the price. Your morning flat white is a geopolitical event. 🍫 Cocoa – In 2024, Côte d’Ivoire cut its export contracts by 40% due to poor weather. Ghana fared little better. Two countries produce half the world’s supply — so when West Africa sneezes, the chocolate market catches a cold. 🌾 Oats – Grown across the EU, Russia, Canada and Australia, oats are more globally distributed than most soft commodities. But here’s the twist: disruption in one grain market tends to ripple across all grains, because they share the same growing regions, transport networks and storage systems. 🥩 Lean hogs and live cattle – Alternative proteins are getting all the headlines. Meanwhile, global meat consumption keeps rising. Livestock futures are a quiet corner of the market that demographic trends suggest won’t stay quiet for long. 🍊 Frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) – Yes, it has its own futures market. In 2024, it hit all-time highs after disease-carrying sap-sucking insects devastated crops in Brazil (which produces nearly 70% of the world’s OJ) and a series of hurricanes compounded the damage in Florida. Extraordinary volatility in the most ordinary of breakfast staples. The common thread? These markets are driven by weather, disease, geography and human appetite — not by central bank policy or tech earnings cycles. For traders and commodity professionals who understand the supply side, that’s a very different — and potentially very interesting — kind of opportunity. Over to you. At Gapuma Group, we’re always curious about the commodity experiences that don’t make the standard textbooks. Have you ever dealt in something genuinely unusual — whether that’s a niche agricultural product, a regional soft commodity, or something else entirely that raised eyebrows at the trading desk?
GREEN STEEL: SUBSTANCE OR SIGNAL?
19 Ferbuary 2026 By: Shahab Mossavat The steel industry accounts for roughly 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If we are serious about decarbonisation, it has to change. But is the emerging green steel market a genuine structural shift, or an expensive exercise in corporate optics? The numbers, right now, suggest something uncomfortably in between. 7% of Global Carbon Emission are Produced by Steel Makers Europe has what passes for an established green steel market — and it is struggling. Traded volumes for flat-rolled green steel remained below 200,000 tonnes throughout 2025, which is vanishingly small against a European market that consumes some 140 million tonnes annually. Fastmarkets’ green steel premium (for product below 0.8 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of steel) has declined since the start of the year, and sources in the market describe buying as almost entirely project-based — nobody, as one Northern European buyer put it, buys green steel “back-to-back.” The spot market has been virtually non-existent since the start of 2026. That is not a market. That is a pilot programme with a premium attached. Part of the problem is definitional chaos. There is no common standard for what “green steel” even means, and buyers in some regions reportedly have no clear idea what they need. When the foundational vocabulary is contested, credibility suffers — and with it, the willingness to pay. The reduced-carbon tier (1.4–1.8 tCO₂ per tonne) saw its premium fall 50% in just three months to a meagre €25 per tonne, suggesting that when the environmental story becomes incremental rather than transformational, buyers simply revert to price. And yet dismissing green steel entirely would be equally wrong. The structural forces pushing towards it are real and are gathering pace. The EU’s Emissions Trading System is progressively withdrawing free allowances from blast furnace producers, and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, now entering its definitive phase, will impose equivalent carbon costs on imported steel. Analysis by CRU suggests that by 2032, the CBAM charge will have risen sufficiently to theoretically return profit-maximising output for EU mills to pre-ETS levels — meaning the economics of green production will tighten around conventional steelmaking from both ends. ArcelorMittal’s confirmation of a €1.3 billion electric arc furnace in Dunkirk, citing EU policy confidence, is a signal worth noting even if the investment was scaled back from its original ambition. EU is Withdrawing Incentive Schemes The forecasts point towards rising hot-rolled coil prices across all production routes to 2035, with the green premium narrowing but persisting — from roughly 23% today to around 8% by 2035 as EAF capacity expands and legacy blast furnace costs compound under regulation. The trading angle For those of us who remember steel as a traded commodity, there is a further wrinkle. Physical steel trading has largely disintermediated over the past decade; end-users go direct to mills, and the role of the merchant has contracted sharply. Green steel, paradoxically, may be reopening a gap. Because green steel is niche, project-specific, and negotiated on terms that vary considerably between transactions, the information asymmetries that once justified intermediaries are back. Mills producing green product need buyers who understand what they are actually purchasing. Buyers with Scope 3 obligations need supply that is verifiable and documented. That is not a spot market. That is a relationship market — and relationship markets have historically rewarded those who understand both sides of the transaction. Green Steel Sheets and Cold Rolls Whether that translates into a commercial opportunity depends on how quickly mandated demand — through green public procurement under the EU’s forthcoming Industrial Accelerator Act — moves from political intention to contracted reality. One mill source was blunt: large-scale demand for green steel can only be stimulated through public projects. Without that, it remains a niche. The honest verdict is this: green steel is not yet efficient as an environmental instrument, because its scale is too small to move the emissions needle. But the regulatory architecture being constructed around it is serious, and the cost convergence is real and mathematically predictable. The performative phase — buying a few thousand tonnes to put in the sustainability report — is giving way, slowly, to something more structural. The question for commodity-focused businesses is not whether green steel matters. It is whether they are positioned to participate when it does. Gapuma Group monitors developments across physical commodity markets. We welcome discussion from producers, buyers, and investors navigating the energy transition.
RAN, OIL AND THE ART OF THE CONVENIENT CRISIS
19 February 2026 Brent crude pushed above $71.50 yesterday. WTI broke $66. A 4% surge in a single session, with more to follow in early European trading. The headlines wrote themselves: US-Iran tensions, Strait of Hormuz fears, military build-up in the Persian Gulf. All of that is real. But is geopolitical risk genuinely driving this spike, or is it doing the market a useful favour — providing cover for something more structurally inconvenient? Here is the problem the oil market does not particularly want to discuss. The IEA’s implied surplus for 2026 has ballooned to nearly 4 million barrels per day – driven by OPEC+ unwinding its production cuts and relentless output growth from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Guyana and Argentina. Global demand growth is forecast at just 930,000 barrels per day – tepid, weighed down by EV adoption, improving vehicle efficiency and anaemic economic conditions. On paper, this is one of the most oversupplied markets in recent memory. And yet here we are, with Brent at six-month highs. Iranian exports run at roughly 1.5 million barrels per day. Total flows through the Strait of Hormuz reach around 20 million barrels per day. A full-scale disruption would be seismic, potentially erasing the entire surplus at a stroke. The Iran risk is not imaginary. But what it conveniently masks is that the physical market is already tighter than balance sheets suggest – sanctioned oil finding fewer willing buyers, Indian refiners shunning Russian barrels, and the Brent forward curve sitting in backwardation well into 2028. That is not the shape of a market drowning in surplus. Geopolitical crises do not create oil market fundamentals. They temporarily obscure them. When the dust settles – as it eventually does – the surplus will still be there.
Global Growth Steady at 3% – So Why Is Britain Lagging Behind?
12 February 2026 The global economy is maintaining a resilient 3% growth trajectory in 2026, according to the ACCA Global Economic Outlook. Yet Britain’s economy tells a starkly different story. The EY ITEM Club’s Winter Forecast projects UK GDP growth of just 0.9% this year – one of the weakest performances in the G7. More concerning for those of us in physical commodities: business investment is forecast to contract by 0.2% in 2026, a sharp downgrade from November’s 0.8% growth prediction. The contrast is striking. Whilst the US leads G7 growth and emerging markets demonstrate surprising resilience despite unprecedented tariff disruptions, Britain splutters. GDP per capita grew by merely 1% in 2025 after zero growth in 2024 – hardly the transformation promised eighteen months ago. What’s holding the UK back? Persistent policy uncertainty, weak business confidence, and a construction sector in the doldrums despite ambitious housing targets. For commodity traders, the implications are clear: whilst global trade adapts to new realities and maintains momentum, UK domestic demand remains anaemic. The government’s fiscal tightening, frozen income tax thresholds, and employer National Insurance increases are weighing heavily on growth. Meanwhile, our global competitors press ahead. As EY notes, the Bank of England may deliver one final rate cut in April, but monetary policy alone cannot overcome these structural headwinds. For Gapuma Group and the wider commodities sector, the message is unambiguous: opportunity lies in global markets showing genuine dynamism, not in a UK economy stuck in low gear. The world economy is proving adaptable and resilient. Britain needs to match that energy – urgently.
Nvidia’s Earnings Calm AI-Bubble Jitters — But Contradictions in the AI Race Remain
21st November 2025 Nvidia’s latest quarterly results delivered a decisive message to global markets: demand for AI infrastructure is not only real but accelerating at pace. Strong data-centre revenues lifted technology indices and eased near-term concerns that the sector was tipping into bubble territory. Yet the optimism highlights a deeper contradiction within the trillion-dollar AI race. Companies are channelling unprecedented capital into compute, chips and cloud capacity, while uncertainty persists over where long-term value will ultimately be captured. Investors remain divided on who stands to benefit and whether structural bottlenecks — from supply-chain constraints and skills shortages to rising energy demand — will curb the very growth that markets are pricing in. For commodity markets, Nvidia’s performance is not merely a technology story. It underscores the physical foundations of AI. Sharp growth in demand for advanced chips is increasing pressure on raw-materials sourcing, logistics networks and energy infrastructure. Businesses treating AI as a purely digital revolution risk overlooking the material inputs that enable it. At Gapuma Group, our approach remains clear: assess AI-driven demand through a supply-chain lens, examine exposure to single-supplier chokepoints, and strengthen ethical, transparent sourcing as infrastructure investment intensifies. In short, participate in the opportunity whilst hedging the structural risks beneath it.