You don't make a 20m worth of product in one go. You do it...

You don't make a 20m worth of product in one go. You do it overtime. All businesses invest money in their inventory and also are expose to credit risk (risk that your customers will not pay). Companies put policies to manage these risks. It the case of NCA and JAT, a binding offtake or purchase agreement would have been sufficient to reduce NCA's exposure of JAT not performing its obligation. Asking for a deposit from your customer is not a standard practice and reflects the soft stand of JAT during negotiation.