Honour the contract
If we signed it, we perform it. When the market moves against us we take the loss and ship the cargo. That reputation is the only real asset a trader has.
Our story
A trading desk that started at the discharge berth
We learned this business from the operations side first. That order still shapes how we trade.
Vardhan Global Limited was formed to solve a problem our founders kept meeting in the market: cargoes sold on paper by counterparties who had never stood on a stockpile, never argued a draft survey, and had no plan for the week the berth went down.
We took the opposite approach. We built the operations and documentation capability first, then the trading book on top of it. Today the group runs five divisions — coal, iron ore, steel scrap, logistics and renewable energy — from a commercial base in the UAE, with sourcing relationships across Indonesia, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, the Gulf and Europe.
We are deliberately mid-sized. We are large enough to fix a Capesize and open a seven-figure letter of credit, and small enough that the person who quoted your cargo is the person who answers the phone when the vessel is two days late.
Independent
No mine and no mill owns us, so we buy on merit and sell where the cargo works best.
One backbone
Every desk shares the same operations, chartering and documentation team.
Gulf-based
A commercial base in the UAE, in the same working day as our origins and our customers.
Mid-sized by design
Big enough to fix a Capesize and open a letter of credit; small enough that your trader answers the phone.
Mandate
What we are here to do
Our mandate is narrow on purpose. We do not try to be in every commodity or every market. We concentrate on bulk inputs to steel and power, where specification discipline and freight control decide whether a contract performs.
- Security of supply. Multiple qualified origins for every grade we sell, so one mine's problem is not our customer's problem.
- Specification integrity. Independent sampling and analysis at load port, every parcel, no exceptions.
- Freight accountability. Chartering in our own name so the laycan we promise is a laycan we control.
- Transition capital. Reinvesting trading margin into solar and wind generation in the markets we already serve.
Our values
Four things we will not trade away
These are not posters on a wall. Each one costs us money in the short run and earns it back in repeat business.
Tell it straight
If a parcel is marginal on ash or a vessel is going to miss the window, you hear it from us early — not from your own surveyor at discharge.
Mine responsibly
We will not buy from an origin that cannot evidence its licences, its tailings management and its labour standards. We have walked away from cargoes over this.
Fund the transition
We are realistic about where energy comes from today and committed to changing the mix. Renewables are a division of this company, not a disclaimer.
Milestones
How the group grew
From a single coal desk to a five-division group spanning trading, freight and power generation.
PHASE ONE
Thermal coal desk opens
The business starts with Indonesian thermal coal into South Asian cement and power buyers, trading on an FOB basis.
PHASE TWO
Freight taken in-house
After one too many missed laycans on seller's freight, we begin chartering in our own name and move to CFR terms.
PHASE THREE
Iron ore and scrap added
The same mills buying our coal ask us to source burden and charge. Iron ore and ferrous scrap become standalone desks.
PHASE FOUR
Gulf trading base established
A UAE commercial office puts the group in the same time zone as both its origins and its customers, with regional banking access.
PHASE FIVE
Renewable energy division launched
Utility-scale solar and wind development begins in the markets where we already have offtake relationships and local presence.
Governance & compliance
The questions counterparties ask first
Before anyone discusses price, they want to know who they are dealing with and how the cargo and the paper are controlled. Here are the answers we give.
An internationally recognised independent inspectorate is appointed at load port on every parcel. They supervise weighing, draw and prepare the composite sample, and issue the certificates of weight, quality and sampling that travel with the shipping documents. Buyers are free to nominate a joint inspector at their own cost.
Our standard is an irrevocable letter of credit at sight, confirmed by a bank acceptable to us, against a clean document set. For established counterparties we also work on documents against payment, cash against documents, and — after a trading history and credit review — open account with credit insurance.
Every contract carries a specification table with a bonus and penalty scale on the governing parameters — calorific value, ash, sulphur and moisture on coal; Fe, silica, alumina and phosphorus on ore; density and contamination on scrap — plus clearly stated rejection limits. Adjustment is calculated from the load-port certificate and settled within the agreed period after discharge.
Every counterparty, vessel and beneficial owner is screened against the applicable sanctions lists before a contract is signed and again before documents are presented. We run know-your-counterparty files on all trading partners, and we decline business where origin, ownership or end use cannot be evidenced.
Yes. Our logistics division arranges stevedoring, customs clearance, storage and onward road or rail haulage to plant gate in most of the markets we serve. Where we cannot deliver to plant, we say so at the indication stage rather than at the berth.
Next step
Open a trading relationship with Vardhan
Send us your grades, annual volumes and discharge ports. We will come back with origins, indicative pricing and a proposed contract structure.