The US Export-Import Bank, an independent federal agency tasked with helping to facilitate US trade, will invest $100 billion to achieve President Trump's plan to secure US and allied supply chains for critical minerals, nuclear energy, and liquefied natural gas (LNG). 

Its new chair, John Jovanovic (appointed in September) told the Financial Times that the agency would finance these efforts in order to counter western reliance on China and Russia - and that the first tranche of deals will include projects in Egypt, Pakistan and Europe, adding that the West has been over-reliant on supplies of critical materials that "are no longer fair." 

"We can't do anything else that we're trying to do without these underlying critical raw material supply chains being secure, stable and functioning," Jovanovic told the outlet, adding that the bank's first deals would include a credit insurance guarantee for $4 billion of LNG being delivered from Egypt by New York-based commodities group Hartree Partners, as well as a $1.25 billion loan for the Reko Diq mine under development in Pakistan by Barrick Mining. 

The bank currently has $100 billion to deploy out of $135 billion authorized by Congress, and has authorized $8.7 billion in new transactions in the 12 months to the end of September, which doesn't include a $4.7 billion loan that was reapproved in March to support a LNG project in Mozambique led by France's TotalEnergies, the FT reports. 

Ex-Im Bank is "back in a big way, and it’s open for business," said Jovanovic in his first interview since assuming his new role, adding that the focus would be on bringing "US energy molecules to every corner of the globe." 

He also said that the United States "can’t do anything else that we’re trying to do without these underlying critical raw material supply chains being secure, stable and functioning."

Ex-Im was being “inundated” with requests for support for US LNG coming from Europe, Africa and Asia, and a series of multibillion-dollar LNG supply deals would be announced in the coming days, he said. 

While some development banks have climate change-related mandates that prevent them from investing in fossil fuels projects, Ex-Im cannot exclude them. Jovanovic said American LNG would be a “stabilising factor in providing energy security to parts of the world that need it most”.

Ex-Im’s increased focus on supporting LNG exports and energy security represents a shift of emphasis for the bank, which had been expanding support for renewable energy under former president Joe Biden. Last year it supported $1.6bn in green energy projects, an increase of 74 per cent compared with 2023. -FT

Meanwhile, Ex-Im is "actively in discussions" about several nuclear projects in south-east Europe, where US companies including Westinghouse are looking to invest, as well as back mining projects for uranium in order to make nuclear fuel - something which has moved increasingly into Russia and China. 

The Trump administration has been stressing the need to break America's dependence on China for metals, including copper and rare earths. The bank will finance critical minerals projects "in a large way," and is working on deals that are "very near the finish line," Jovanovic told FT, noting that much of what's in the pipeline was "orders of magnitude larger" than the $1.25bn Reko Diq loan. 

In October, the White House hammered out a minerals supply deal with Australia, and is working on similar deals that Ex-Im is "ready to be part of." 

h/t Capital.news