INTRODUCTION
Abstract
Lately there has been a gigantic interest in commodities worldwide - energy in particular - as evidenced by the number of press editorials and analysts' forecasts that are being published on the subject. Commodity prices have been experiencing an unprecedented rise in the last few years and despite the recent collapse, there is little evidence at the date of writing (November 2008) that we may revert to the levels prevailing in the early 2000s. Uranium prices went from $7 per pound in 2003 to $90, then $100 in early 2008, with 442 nuclear reactors in the world needing 180 million pounds of uranium, a number that is much larger than the current production. The LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) market has become quite active; Korean shipyards are delivering new carriers with increased capacity and, interestingly, some of the LNG tankers are starting to be used as floating storage, exhibiting a valuable optionality. Demand for metals, energy and cereals from Brazil and Russia, two of the fastest-growing economies, has undoubtedly increased the volatility across all commodity classes, together with the needs of the heavily populated India and China. As an example, between 2001 and 2005, China's demand for copper, aluminium