Industries That Win With Real Options

Any industry whose margins depend on 1–3 traded indices benefits from real options — just like renewables depend on power prices.

The Sweet Spot for Real Options

Industries where managers can time, size, switch, or stage investments based on market indices create massive option value. If your margins = output price − input costs − carbon, and you have flexibility in capex timing, CapexEdge finds 15-30% hidden NPV.

8 Sectors, €100B+ in Annual CAPEX

Automotive & Battery Supply Chain

Key Indices: LME metals (Al, Cu, steel), battery metals (Li, Ni, Co), EU ETS, power, FX

Options: EV line expansion/deferral, gigafactory staging, model-mix flexibility, PPA timing

Metals & Mining

Key Indices: LME metals, power (crucial for Al), EU ETS, coal/coke spreads

Options: Curtail/restart smelters, BF→EAF conversion, PPA timing, mothball value

Chemicals & Fertilizers

Key Indices: TTF gas, Brent/naphtha, ammonia/urea, EU ETS

Options: Feedstock switching, rate cuts vs shutdown, debottleneck timing

Cement, Glass, Ceramics

Key Indices: Power/gas, petcoke/coal, EU ETS

Options: Kiln outage timing, fuel switching, staged CCUS investment

Pulp, Paper & Packaging

Key Indices: Pulp (NBSK), power/gas, EU ETS, freight

Options: Grade switching, machine speed/idle, CHP investment timing

Transport: Airlines & Shipping

Key Indices: Jet fuel, bunker spreads, Baltic indices, EU ETS

Options: Fleet orders/deferrals, route flexibility, SAF timing, scrubber retrofits

Data Centers & HPC

Key Indices: Power prices, capacity prices, renewable certificates

Options: Site selection, PPA vs grid, battery arbitrage, phased buildout

Agri/Food Processing

Key Indices: Grains/oils (ICE/CBOT), sugar, dairy, power/gas

Options: Plant run/idle, product-mix switches, CHP/storage timing

Industry Option Kits — Plug & Play

Pre-built templates with canonical indices, calibrations, and models for your industry.

Automotive & Batteries Pack

  • Indices: LME Al/Cu, steel HRC, Li/Ni/Co, power, ETS, FX
  • Templates: Plant expansion, gigafactory phasing, supplier switch
  • Models: GBM/OU with correlations, Bermudan LSM
  • Outputs: Exercise boundaries vs metal basket prices

Metals Pack

  • Indices: LME metal, power node prices, EU ETS
  • Templates: Curtail/reactivate, PPA timing, EAF conversion
  • Models: Spark spread options, mothball valuation
  • Outputs: Margin-at-risk, VaR/CVaR, mothball option value

Chemicals Pack

  • Indices: TTF, naphtha/Brent, ETS, ammonia/urea
  • Templates: Feedstock switch, rate cuts, debottleneck stages
  • Models: Crack spread options, switching boundaries
  • Outputs: Run vs shut regions, turnaround timing value

Each pack includes Excel-compatible templates, calibrations, audit traces, and certification-ready calculation logs.

Get Your Industry Pack

Why These Industries Work Like Power

Public Price Exposure

Few, public, hedgeable prices dominate the economics — power, gas, LME metals, ETS, jet fuel, freight. Just like power drives renewables.

Binary Decisions

Run/idle, retrofit/wait, order/defer create asymmetric payoffs with high option value. Flexibility in timing and sizing creates 15-30% hidden NPV.

Tractable Correlations

Correlations matter but are manageable — power-ETS, Li-Ni-Co, metal-power. Our calibration captures the dependencies that drive value.

Your Industry, Your Indices, Your Options

Get a pilot in 6-8 weeks. Upload your cashflows, we calibrate to your indices, deliver exercise heatmaps and audit-ready valuations.

Start Industry Pilot