German utility Uniper’s admission that it had been forced to seek €10bn in new credit lines was a stark reminder that the threat posed by Europe’s energy crisis is not limited to consumers.
德国公用事业公司Uniper承认，它曾被迫寻求100亿欧元的新信贷额度，这一事实尖锐地提醒人们，欧洲能源危机带来的威胁并不仅限于消费者。
The dash for cash last week by one of Europe’s largest energy companies comes as unprecedented rises in natural gas and power prices prompt a sudden swelling of it liabilities on futures contracts.
上周，欧洲最大的能源公司之一急于寻求现金，因为天然气和电力价空前上涨导致其期货合约债务突然激增。
With state-backed lender KfW providing €2bn of the mammoth financing alongside €8bn from Uniper’s Finnish owner Fortum, bankers now fear a scramble for credit among the region’s smaller companies as private-sector banks back away.
在这笔巨额融资中，国家支持的德国复兴信贷银行(KfW)提供了20亿欧元，而Uniper的芬兰所有者Fortum提供了80亿欧元。银行家们现在担心，随着私营银行撤出，该地区的中小企业将竞相争夺信贷。
“The moves have been so extreme that even the normal, most cautious day-to-day business of locking in the spread requires you to raise so much money just to hold the position to delivery,” said Lueder Schumacher, analyst at Société Générale.
法国兴业银行(Société Générale)的分析师吕德•舒马赫(Lueder Schumacher)说：“这些举动是如此极端，以至于即使是正常的、最谨慎的锁定价差的日常业务，也需要你筹集这么多钱，只是为了持仓到交割。”
“I’d be surprised if everybody in the market who needs access to credit lines will actually get it.”
“如果市场上所有需要信贷额度的人都能获得它，我会感到惊讶。”
European gas prices have surged more than 400 per cent over the past year, as demand rebounded from the pandemic and Asian customers snapped up additional cargoes of liquefied natural gas.
过去一年，欧洲天然气价格飙升逾400%，原因是疫情后需求反弹，亚洲客户抢购了更多液化天然气。