We did spend a lot of time optimizing our ETL software and here is what we were able to achieve so far:
Loading data into Oracle database via direct path loading from a text file
Version 8.3.6.1: 28000 rec/second
Version 8.3.6.3: 46000 rec/second
Version 8.3.6.4: 84000 rec/second
Version 8.3.6.6: 94000 rec/second
Version 8.3.6.8: 101000 rec/second
Version 9.2.4.10: 210000 rec/second
There a lot of ways to make our software better, we will continue working on improving performance and will publish our results here.