Home Industry Metals and Mining Vitol Group announces expansio...
Metals and Mining
Business Fortune
11 April, 2024
After an extended break from the market, Vitol Group has now decided to venture into metals trading once again, with a positive outlook for the future.
CEO Russell Hardy stated on Tuesday at the Financial Times Commodities Summit that it was a relatively small addition to their business.
Hardy's comments are the company's first recognition of their recent change in the energy trading industry. Bloomberg had earlier reported that Vitol had brought in an iron ore trader the prior year. Reuters reported last week that the company is currently hiring two base metals traders who recently left competitor Mercuria Energy Group.
The expansion takes place as Vitol, the largest independent commodities trader in the world, looks to diversify its business beyond energy, gas, and oil after generating net profits of more than $28 billion over the previous two years.
In the 1990s, the company acquired Euromin, a business specializing in trading metals, especially in the former Soviet Union. This move was haunted by the company's past failed attempt to enter the metals trading market.
Hardy stated that he wouldn't characterize it as their best moment because they had some difficulty controlling the hazards. He continued by saying that, as a result, they were essentially starting over from scratch and had only just begun.