Commodities We Trade
Clement Associates provides procurement consultancy and mandated representation across eight core commodities — spanning energy, industrial inputs, precious metals, and construction materials.
Diesel
A refined petroleum fuel distilled from crude oil, heavier and denser than gasoline, and ignited by compression rather than a spark. It powers trucks, buses, trains, ships, and heavy machinery, along with backup generators, because its energy density and torque suit heavy loads. Refiners also use diesel-range distillates as feedstock for heating oil, which is chemically almost identical to diesel fuel.
Crude Oil
Unrefined petroleum pumped from underground reservoirs, made up of hydrocarbons formed over millions of years from decayed organic matter. Refiners separate it into products like gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, and feedstock for plastics and chemicals. It functions as the primary energy source for global transportation and a raw material for thousands of industrial and consumer products.
Bitumen
Bitumen is the thick, sticky, semi-solid form of petroleum, either extracted from oil sands or left over as the heaviest fraction after crude oil refining. Its main use is road construction and roofing, where it acts as a binder for asphalt and a waterproof sealant. Refiners also process it into synthetic crude when they need lighter, more valuable products.
Base Oils
Refined petroleum products (or synthetic fluids) that form the primary ingredient in lubricants, typically making up 70-99% of the finished product. Manufacturers blend them with additives to produce engine oils, hydraulic fluids, greases, and industrial lubricants, since the base oil determines core properties like viscosity and oxidation stability. They're classified into five API groups, Group I through III from crude refining, Group IV and V being synthetic, with higher groups offering better performance at a higher cost.
Urea
A nitrogen-based compound produced by combining ammonia and carbon dioxide, and it's the world's most widely used solid nitrogen fertilizer. Farmers apply it to crops because it delivers a high concentration of nitrogen, around 46%, cheaply per unit of nutrient. It also serves as the active ingredient in diesel exhaust fluid, which reduces nitrogen oxide emissions in diesel engines, and as a raw material in resins and animal feed.
Gold
Gold is a dense, corrosion-resistant metal valued for its rarity, malleability, and conductivity. Its primary uses are jewelry and investment, where central banks and investors hold it as a reserve asset and hedge against currency devaluation. Industrially, its resistance to tarnish and strong conductivity make it useful in electronics connectors and, in smaller amounts, dentistry.
Cement
Cement is a fine gray powder made by grinding clinker, produced by heating limestone and clay at high temperatures, then blending it with gypsum. Mixed with water, sand, and aggregate, it hardens through a chemical reaction called hydration, forming concrete, the most used construction material on earth. Its main use is structural, foundations, roads, bridges, and buildings, where it provides compressive strength and durability at low cost.
Steel
An alloy of iron and carbon, with carbon content typically between 0.02% and 2%, which gives it far more strength and durability than pure iron. Manufacturers add elements like chromium, nickel, or manganese to create variants such as stainless steel, adjusting properties like corrosion resistance or hardness for specific uses. It's the backbone of construction, infrastructure, and manufacturing, used in everything from building frames and bridges to vehicles, appliances, and machinery, because it delivers high strength per unit cost.