Energy giant Vitol targets copper market with hire from Glencore

Image: Glencore via Instagram.

Vitol Group has hired a former Glencore Plc trader to develop a copper business, as the energy trading powerhouse seeks to enter the highest-profile metals market.

Bruno Porto, a veteran copper trader who has been at Glencore since 2006, will join Vitol to build out a copper trading team from London, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named as the matter isn’t public. He’s set to start in March, one of the people said.

It’s the latest move by a big energy trader to shake up the world of metals trading, which has long been dominated by incumbents Glencore and Trafigura Group.

In the past year, Vitol has added iron ore and aluminum traders as it seeks to bulk up in metals, but the hire of Porto marks its attempt to crack copper, which is the largest base-metal market by value.

Other energy traders including Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. and Gunvor Group have also been expanding in metals, driving a hiring spree across the industry.

Vitol has already poached several people from Glencore’s trading teams, firstly in iron ore and then in aluminum.

Energy traders like Vitol are looking to metals to redeploy some of the bonanza profits earned during the bout of extreme volatility in oil, gas, coal and electricity prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Vitol is the world’s biggest independent trader of oil, moving around 7.3 million barrels of crude and oil products a day. Spokespeople for Vitol and Glencore declined to comment.

(By Archie Hunter, Anna Shiryaevskaya and Jack Farchy)

Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *