Vitol's foray into metals not a strategic pivot away from energy
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, April 9 (Reuters) - Vitol's foray into metals trading is not a strategic shift away from energy, but it will help the world's largest energy trader understand the global economic environment, CEO Russell Hardy said on Tuesday.
Reuters reported last week that the Swiss company had poached Benjamin Seaford and William Gayner from rival Mercuria to trade metals, in a move that would help Vitol further diversify its business, according to sources.
|
Advertisement: The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC) NGC’s HSSE strategy is reflective and supportive of the organisational vision to become a leader in the global energy business. |
The energy transition, which includes electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies, will need large volumes of metals including aluminium, copper, nickel cobalt - providing lucrative opportunities for traders.
"We see an exciting decade going forward in those markets," Hardy said at the Financial Times Global Commodities Summit in Lausanne. "We're not alien to metals, we had a metals business in the 1990s and the early 2000s. We had smelters ... I wouldn't describe it as (our) finest hour."
Hardy went on to say Vitol was "starting from scratch again" in metals trading.
"It's something that we think helps our understanding of the overall economy and the overall drivers. The power business likes to understand what's going on in some of these markets."
Alongside oil, Vitol is also a major player in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) and power markets.
(Reporting by Pratima Desai; Editing by Devika Syamnath)