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The world’s biggest independent oil trader, Vitol, has appointed Douglas Booth as head of copper concentrates. He is the third trader to join the company’s revived metals team so far this year. The move continues the build-out of Vitol’s metals team. It follows the recruitment of Bruno Porto as head of copper in March and the addition of Adrien de Sousa as trader in the refined copper team in June.
Booth announced his move on LinkedIn on October 1. He joins from IXM in Geneva where he had worked as a senior copper trader since early 2023.
Prior to IXM, Booth spent more than 12 years at Glencore as a senior copper trader at the company’s Baar headquarters in Switzerland.
De Sousa joined from SEFE Marketing & Trading. He had been senior vice president of energy transition metals and minerals in Singapore since October 2024.Prior to SEFE, de Sousa spent almost 10 years at Mitsubishi Corporation RtM International in Singapore. There, he served as general manager of the refined metal division and carbon from April 2020 to October 2024. He also served as lead aluminium trader from March 2015 to March 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before Mitsubishi, de Sousa was a senior aluminium trader at Norway’s Norsk Hydro.
Porto joined Vitol after 18 years at Glencore.
Vitol’s expansion into copper comes as energy traders increasingly move into the metals markets. They are capitalizing on profits earned during the volatility in energy markets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to media reports.
At a conference in April 2024, Vitol chief executive officer Russell Hardy confirmed that the oil giant was starting to rebuild a metals trading book after a long absence from the market. He described it as “a relatively small addition to our business” with an “exciting decade” ahead.
The company previously traded metals through Euromin in the 1990s but exited the business after struggling with risk management. Hardy said that Vitol was now starting from scratch again.
Beyond copper, Vitol has also expanded into iron ore and aluminium trading in recent years. They hired traders from Glencore and other competitors.
Market participants told Fastmarkets that Vitol’s approach in building a copper trading book was more cautious but also more progressive than other new entrants.
The company is leveraging its extensive balance sheet and market relationships built over the decades in energy trading. Vitol is gradually expanding into copper concentrates, Fastmarkets understands. Sources have characterized Vitol’s strategy as a “three-to-five year project,” reflecting its more long-term view than competitors such as Mercuria which moved aggressively into the metals space earlier this year.
Fastmarkets assessed the copper concentrates TC index, cif Asia Pacific – the mid-point between smelter and trader buying levels – at $(63.40) per tonne on Friday September 26. This was down by $0.10 per tonne from $(63.30) per tonne on September 19.