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Sweden will give emergency liquidity support to electricity producers as its prime minister warned that Russia’s decision to halt gas deliveries to Europe could place its financial system under severe strain.
瑞典总理警告说，俄罗斯停止向欧洲输送天然气的决定可能使其金融系统面临严重压力，因此瑞典将向电力生产商提供紧急流动性支持。
Magdalena Andersson said on Saturday that the government would offer hundreds of billions of kroner in funding to electricity producers, who have seen the amount of collateral they must post with exchanges balloon in response to soaring gas and power prices and increasing volatility.
玛格达莱娜·安德松(Magdalena Andersson)周六表示，政府将向电力生产商提供数千亿克朗的资金。由于天然气和电力价格飙升，且波动性加大，这些生产商必须向交易所提交的抵押品数量激增。
EU energy ministers will also consider taking steps to ease the lack of liquidity for energy companies across the bloc at an emergency meeting on Friday, according to two officials briefed on the discussions.
据两名听取了讨论简报的官员表示，在周五的紧急会议上，欧盟能源部长们还将考虑采取措施，缓解整个欧盟能源企业流动性不足的问题。
Andersson warned that, left unchecked, rising collateral demands for electricity producers could ripple through the main Nasdaq Clearing market in Stockholm and, in the worst case, spark a financial crisis.
安德松警告称，如果不加以遏制，对电力生产商不断上升的抵押品需求可能会波及斯德哥尔摩的纳斯达克清算市场(Nasdaq Clearing)，在最糟糕的情况下，还可能引发金融危机。
Her remarks came after Russia said on Friday that it would
no longer supply gas via the Nordstream 1 pipeline. That announcement came after energy markets had closed for the weekend.
“Yesterday’s announcement not only risks leading to a ‘war winter’ but also threatens our financial stability,” Andersson said, standing alongside Sweden’s financial regulator, central bank governor and finance minister at an emergency press conference on Saturday.
安德松说：“昨天的宣布不仅有可能导致'战争之冬'，而且还威胁到我们的金融稳定，”她与瑞典的金融监管机构、中央银行行长和财政部长一起站在周六的紧急新闻发布会上。
Finnish finance minister Annika Saarikko said on Twitter that her country would also act. “The concern is shared. Similar preparations are already well under way in Finland,” Saarikko tweeted.
芬兰财政部长安妮卡·萨里科(Annika Saarikko)在Twitter上表示，芬兰也将采取行动。萨里科写到，“大家都有同感。芬兰已经在进行类似的准备工作。”
The dramatic actions underscored the seriousness of the situation facing Europe as it scrambles to secure enough energy ahead of winter and tries to avoid the spread of distress among electricity producers.
这些戏剧性的举动突显了欧洲面临的严峻形势。欧洲正在赶在冬季到来之前确保足够的能源，并试图避免困境在电力生产商中蔓延。
After surging to an all-time high eight days ago gas and electricity prices cooled slightly this week, with the benchmark European gas and German power contracts both declining by around a third — though they remain about 10 times historical levels. But the prolonged shutdown of Nord Stream 1 could increase volatility and boost prices when trading opens again on Monday.
在8天前飙升至历史最高水平之后，本周天然气和电力价格略有降温，欧洲基准天然气和德国电力合同均下降了约三分之一，但仍维持在历史水平的10倍左右。但北溪1号的长期关闭可能会增加波动性，并在周一重新开市时推高价格。
Officials in Brussels are working on several possible ways of helping energy companies, including emergency liquidity support, the two officials said. Margin calls were becoming “far too big” for electricity producers to pay, said one.
这两位官员说，布鲁塞尔的官员正在研究几种可能的方式来帮助能源公司，包括提供紧急流动性支持。其中一位表示，追加保证金的要求变得“太大了”，电力生产商无力支付。
Other measures could include price caps on either electricity or gas and ways to decouple the gas and electricity markets ahead of longer term reform. “Russians will play with us and we are not well equipped to face that,” said the second official.
其他措施可能包括对电力或天然气实行价格上限，以及在长期改革之前实现天然气和电力市场脱钩。第二名官员表示：“俄罗斯人会跟我们玩手段，而我们没有充分的准备来面对这一点。”
The European energy market’s big problem
Many European energy companies are profiting from the rise in prices, but there are large discrepancies across the industry.
Those which produce gas or generate electricity using renewables or nuclear — where input costs have not risen — should be making large profits. But those reliant on burning gas for electricity generation are more likely to struggle — especially if they have been cut off from Russian supplies.
Companies’ need to post additional collateral does not mean trades or hedges are unprofitable, but their positions — often linked to providing gas or power to households and businesses — have rapidly become much more expensive to fund.
Companies are struggling to increase their short-term borrowing facilities quickly enough, risking a cash squeeze.
Jakob Magnussen, chief credit analyst at Danske Bank, said the big issue for electricity generators was the need for additional short-term funding.
To hedge their sales generators will normally short electricity futures contracts until the point they actually produce and sell the power into the market, helping guarantee the price they will receive.
But power prices have risen so rapidly in recent weeks that paper losses on the futures contracts have soared, requiring huge amounts of additional collateral to be posted with the exchanges.
“Margin calls are really exploding right now, it’s particularly an issue for smaller utilities,” said Magnussen. “Once the contracts mature and the utilities sell the power they will get their money back, but there’s a huge need for additional short-term funding in the meantime and many banks could be reluctant to increase their exposure so rapidly to the sector.”
欧洲能源市场的大问题
许多欧洲能源公司正在从价格上涨中获利，但整个行业存在巨大差异。
那些生产天然气或利用可再生能源或核能发电的企业——在投入成本没有上升的情况下——应该获得大量利润。但那些依靠燃烧天然气发电的公司更有可能陷入困境——尤其是如果他们已经被切断了与俄罗斯的供应。
公司需要提供额外的抵押品并不意味着交易或对冲无利可图，但它们的头寸——通常与向家庭和企业提供天然气或电力有关——融资成本已迅速变得高得多。
企业难以迅速获得足够的短期借款，从而面临现金短缺的风险。
丹麦丹斯克银行(Danske Bank)首席信贷分析师雅各布•马格努森(Jakob Magnussen)表示，对发电企业来说，最大的问题是需要额外的短期融资。
为了对冲销售风险，发电商通常会做空电力期货合约，直到他们实际生产并向市场出售电力为止，这有助于保证他们将获得的价格。
但是，最近几周电价上涨得如此之快，以至于期货合约的纸面损失飙升，需要向交易所提供大量的额外抵押品。
马格努森称，“目前追加保证金的情况非常严重，这对小型公用事业公司尤其是个问题。一旦合同到期，公用事业公司出售电力，它们将收回资金，但与此同时，对额外短期融资的需求非常大，许多银行可能不愿如此迅速地增加对该行业的敞口。”
“We are not afraid of Putin’s decisions, we ask Putin to respect their contracts, but if they don’t respect their contracts, we are ready to react,” Paolo Gentiloni, the EU’s economy commissioner, told reporters on Saturday in comments reported by newswires.
“我们不害怕普京的决定，我们要求普京尊重他们的合同，但如果他们不尊重他们的合同，我们准备做出反应，”欧盟经济专员保罗·真蒂洛尼(Paolo Gentiloni)周六在新闻通讯社的评论中告诉记者。
Eurozone policymakers think that decisions should be made at a national level, according to one person with knowledge of their discussions.
据一位知情人士透露，欧元区政策制定者认为，决策应在国家层面做出。
Jean Francois Lambert, founder of Lambert Commodities and former head of commodity trade finance at HSBC, said other countries were likely to intervene in their energy markets.
兰伯特商品公司(Lambert Commodities)创始人、汇丰银行大宗商品贸易融资部前主管让•弗朗索瓦•兰伯特(Jean Francois Lambert)表示，其他国家很可能会对其能源市场进行干预。
“The crisis is moving into the next stage. If one of the large energy companies collapses there are fears there could be a domino effect,” he said. “The call for liquidity is so enormous that maybe one day we have a problem that could harm the whole market.”
“危机正在进入下一个阶段。如果一家大型能源公司倒闭，人们担心可能会产生多米诺骨牌效应。对流动性的需求是如此巨大，也许有一天我们会遇到一个问题，可能会损害整个市场。”
While the threat of contagion to the wider financial sector was limited, governments needed to act to stop energy markets from “freezing up”, he added.
他补充称，尽管危机蔓延至更广泛金融领域的威胁有限，但各国政府需要采取行动，阻止能源市场“冻结”。
Andersson said that Sweden’s support would apply to all Nordic and Baltic players, and would need approval by the Swedish parliament’s finance committee on Monday.
安德松表示，瑞典的支持将适用于所有北欧和波罗的海国家，并需要瑞典议会财政委员会周一批准。
“We need to isolate this in one market so it doesn’t infect the financial sector,” said Stefan Ingves, governor of the Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank.
瑞典央行(Riksbank)行长斯特凡•英维斯(Stefan Ingves)表示：“我们需要将这种情况隔离在一个市场中，以免影响到金融业。”
The Swedish authorities said they saw no immediate risk to financial stability, but were worried that otherwise-solvent companies could struggle to find enough liquidity, causing potential ripple effects.
瑞典当局表示，他们没有看到对金融稳定的直接风险，但担心其他破产的公司可能难以找到足够的流动资金，造成潜在的连锁反应。
“Russia is waging an energy war against Europe to divide us. But we will not let Putin succeed,” Andersson said.
“俄罗斯正在对欧洲发动一场能源战争来分裂我们。但我们不会让普京得逞，”安德松说。
Andersson’s comments come a week before parliamentary elections in Sweden with polls pointing to a tight outcome. She said her centre-left government stood ready to act, just as it did over the Covid-19 pandemic.
安德松的评论是在瑞典议会选举前一周发表的，民意调查显示选举结果很激烈。她说，她的中左翼政府随时准备采取行动，就像在应对Covid-19大流行病时那样。
Erik Thedéen, head of Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority, said power prices in Sweden had risen 11-fold in the past year, leading to a jump in collateral demands.
瑞典金融监管局局长Erik Thedéen说，瑞典的电力价格在过去一年中上涨了11倍，导致抵押品需求猛增。
He added that without liquidity support electricity producers could face bankruptcies and large losses that could “rock” the clearing house. “It is under very severe stress,” he said.
他补充说，如果没有流动性支持，电力生产商可能会面临破产和巨额亏损，这可能会“撼动”清算所。“它承受着非常严重的压力，”他说。
Lambert said the situation was not yet a financial crisis. “The large banks in Germany, France, Italy and Spain should be able to stomach this. But if one of their large customers traps them in a liquidity squeeze then you could see all the banks pulling back,” he said.
兰伯特说，目前的情况还不是金融危机。“德国、法国、意大利和西班牙的大型银行应该能够承受。但如果它们的某个大客户让它们陷入流动性紧缩，那么所有银行都可能撤出，”他表示。
In July, the German government agreed a €15bn rescue package for Uniper, Europe’s largest buyer of Russian gas, and said it would take a 30 per cent stake in the company. It had been losing tens of millions of euros a day since Gazprom first cut supplies of gas to Germany through Nord Stream earlier this year.
今年7月，德国政府同意向欧洲最大的俄罗斯天然气买家Uniper提供150亿欧元的纾困方案，并表示将持有该公司30%的股份。自今年早些时候俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司首次切断通过北溪管道向德国供应天然气以来，该公司每天亏损数千万欧元。
Late last month Uniper requested €4bn more, as soaring gas prices burnt up its cash reserves. Uniper, majority-owned by Fortum of Finland, said it had already drawn down a €9bn credit line from state development bank KfW.
上月末，由于飙升的天然气价格耗尽了Uniper的现金储备，该公司要求再增加40亿欧元。由芬兰富腾(Fortum)控股的Uniper表示，该公司已从国家开发银行复兴信贷银行(KfW)获得90亿欧元的信贷额度。
Fortum warned on Monday that its collateral requirements had risen by €1bn to €5bn in the previous week, and that a default by a smaller player would cause “severe disturbances to the Nordic power system”.
富腾周一警告说，其抵押品要求在上一周增加了10亿欧元，达到了50亿欧元，而且一个小公司的违约将导致“北欧电力系统受到严重干扰”。
Additional reporting by Guy Chazan in Berlin and Martin Arnold in Frankfurt
盖伊·查赞(Guy Chazan)柏林、马丁·阿诺德(Martin Arnold)法兰克福补充报道