Introduction

Abstract

Increasing global competition and cost pressure force enterprises and supply chains to discover undetected cost-saving potentials. In particular, interfaces to the procurement market are a promising field for improvement. Recent developments in international trade outline the high influence of uncertain deliveries and highly volatile prices on the companies'costs. A vital question in research, industry, and politics addresses the optimal procurement policy of raw materials due to uncertain future prices and is of highest priority for the firms' success and even the wealth of a nation. Nowadays, commodity markets and commodity derivative markets offer transparent, fast, and efficient trade and risk sharing for raw materials and financial products on raw material prices, e.g., option contracts. This coexistence of operational and financial procurement instruments, i.e., buying opportunities on spot and derivative markets, offers an auspicious chance to optimize the procurement policy in the crucial problem of raw material procurement which is the focus of this thesis.