What SCB does
SCB Group is a brokerage specialising in low-carbon commodities, such as biodiesel, bioethanol, liquified natural gas, battery materials, carbon credits and wastes.
From its head office in Nyon, Switzerland, plus hubs in London, Singapore, Chicago and Puerto Rico, the broker sees the provision of liquidity and visibility for trading in commodities where often there are not established secondary markets as one of its key roles.
As an active brokerage group, this means matching a seller with a suitable buyer and giving price transparency, as well as helping with the sourcing or placement of physical product and credits.
For battery metals, the firm's partnership with the London Metal Exchange has developed a cash settlement contract for cobalt and another is in development for lithium.
Building on its brokerage origins since 2006, SCB has launched an advisory arm to help clients reduce their carbon footprint by measuring, reporting and abating their emissions.
Providing market data on its various commodities is another service offered by the company, with daily, weekly and monthly reports available to all clients as well as bespoke reports.
How it’s doing
SCB claims the title of the world’s largest biofuel broker over the past decade, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 15%.
This was backed up by the company being voted by clients and peers in the 2020 Energy Risk Awards as the best overall commodity broker, best overall energy broker, as well as being voted number-one broker for 2020 for ethanol and biodiesel, agricultural grains and the EU emissions trading scheme
Over the last 13 years, SCB calculates that it has arranged transactions that have abated more than 300mln metric tonnes of CO2 across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. An independent report from PwC is due later this year to verify this calculation.
Last year, SCB founder Kevin McGeeney and the management team set a target of doubling the size of its business - revenue, staff numbers and CO2 impact - by 2024.