Talk:Trafigura/Archives/2015

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Further suggested additions/updates

Hi, a few suggestions below for additions / updates. Please note that I have a COI – Trafigura is my client as stated on my user page. Thanks. HOgilvy (talk) 20:46, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

Infobox

Could some more key people be added to the infobox? There’s the CEO, Jeremy Weir, but then there’s also Christophe Salmon, CFO (from 1st Oct), Mike Wainwright, COO and Jose Larocca, Head of Oil Trading.

CEO added.Dormskirk (talk) 20:13, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

History

1. In the first paragraph – “Claude Dauphin, Chairman and CEO, and the last remaining founder in an executive position, owns less than 20 per cent of the group’s equity while more than 700 senior managers control the rest.” – could it be clarified that Claude Dauphin’s actually Executive Chairman, and could the following be added to the end of that paragraph?

Jeremy Weir has been CEO since March 2014.[1]
Clarification added but not the bit about Weir which would be out of sequence. Dormskirk (talk) 20:13, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

2. In the second paragraph – “The group currently operates from 81 offices in 56 countries.” – since Puma Energy was deconsolidated from the group it’s actually now 65 offices in 36 countries. There’s no secondary source for this but there is this.

This sentence does not sit well under "history". I have removed it. Dormskirk (talk) 20:16, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

3. Last year Trafigura was the first commodity trading company to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative – it was well covered. Could something perhaps be added along the lines of:

In November 2014 Trafigura was the first dedicated commodity trading firm to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a voluntary grouping of resource companies, governments and campaign groups which mandates disclosure of payments by companies to resource-rich governments.[2][3]
Sounds promotional. Dormskirk (talk) 20:16, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Investments

There have been some important ones in the last 18 months or so:

In October 2013 Trafigura subsidiary Impala Terminals became a majority shareholder in the 100 year-old Pacific Railroad Ferrocarril Del Pacífico (FDP). The company is restoring the cargo railway, which connects the Pacific port of Buenaventura with Columbia’s industrial heartland.[4]
In February 2014 Trafigura signed an agreement to acquire a 30% equity stake in the Jinchuan Group’s newly established 400,000 tonnes-per-year copper smelter in Fangchengang, China.[5]
In July 2014 Trafigura launched Lykos, an online platform in India to sell metals to small and medium-sized manufacturers in the country.[6]
In September 2014 Trafigura completed the $860 million sale of an 80 percent stake in a Corpus Christi Texas oil storage terminal to Buckeye Partners LP.[7]
In June 2015 Trafigura announced a 50:50 joint venture with Abu Dhabi investment company Mubadala to invest in base metals mining. As part of the agreement Mubadala also acquired a 50 per cent share in Trafigura’s Minas de Aguas Teñidas (Matsa) mining operation, which owns three mines in southern Spain that produce copper, zinc and lead concentrates.[8] This followed a doubling of processing capacity at the company’s MATSA mining operation in Andalucia, Spain, where two new satellite mines are also being developed.[9]
In August 2015 it was reported that Trafigura subsidiary Impala Terminals is investing USD1 billion in Colombia to develop a new inland road, rail and river network connecting major coastal ports with Columbia’s industrial heartland. The Magdalena River, which runs between Barrancabermeja inland and Barranquilla on the Atlantic coast, will allow transportation of crude oil and petroleum products, dry bulk, containerised and general cargo to and from inland Colombia.[10]
done. Dormskirk (talk) 20:13, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Activities

1. These two sentences should be updated:

“In the year ending 30 Sept 2013, the group traded approximately 2.4 million barrels of physical oil per day.”

“Trade in non-ferrous and bulk commodities – mainly copper, lead and zinc concentrate, alumina, refined metals of copper, lead, zinc and aluminium as well as the iron ore and coal trading books – made up 15% of Trafigura’s overall trading turnover in 2013. The group traded 32.9 million metric tons of non-ferrous and bulk commodities during 2013.”

To:

In the year ending 30 September 2014 trading volumes in oil and petroleum products increased 2 percent to 120.4 million metric tons, or more than 2.5 million barrels a day. Volumes in minerals and metals – mainly copper, lead and zinc concentrate, alumina, refined metals of copper, lead, zinc and aluminium as well as the iron ore and coal trading books - grew 49 percent to 49.1 million tons as Trafigura became one of the three largest traders of coal.[11][12]

There’s a sentence in between the two existing ones and it might need some reshuffling as two other paragraphs are about 2013.

done. Dormskirk (talk) 20:20, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

2. Where there’s a citation needed (tankers), this is it.

done. Dormskirk (talk) 20:23, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

3. Then the sentence: “In support of its arbitrage-based business model, Trafigura ensures a degree of control over supply, storage and logistics through industrial subsidiaries: oil storage and distribution business Puma Energy, in which Trafigura holds an 80% interest.” – this is now a 49% interest after the divestment, see this source.

done. Dormskirk (talk) 20:28, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Intro

Finally, if those additions to the investments sections are appropriate, it might be worth adding something like the following to the intro:

Trafigura has built or purchased stakes in pipelines, mines, smelters, ports and storage terminals.[13]
done. Dormskirk (talk) 20:46, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
  1. ^ Hume, Neil (24 March 2014). "Vitol flags tough markets while rival Trafigura appoints new chief". Financial Times. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  2. ^ "Trafigura first commodities trader to join EITI transparency drive". Reuters. 18 November 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  3. ^ Hume, Neil (17 November 2014). "Trafigura joins drive to disclose payments". Financial Times. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  4. ^ Cuervo Plazas, Zulma Lucía (5 January 2015). ""El tren volvió para quedarse": gerente de Ferrocarril del Pacífico". El Pais (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 August 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Trafigura to buy 30 pct of Jinchuan copper smelter in China". Reuters. 21 February 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  6. ^ "Trafigura targets $8 bln India metals market with online store". The Financial Express. 16 July 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  7. ^ Hoffman, Andy (8 December 2014). "Trafigura Gross Margin Widens After Oil, Coal Volumes Climb". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  8. ^ Zhdannikov, Dmitry (29 June 2015). "Abu Dhabi buys into Trafigura's Spanish mines as part of new venture". Reuters. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  9. ^ "Trafigura announces strong 2014 results; confident future outlook". Commodities Now. 8 December 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  10. ^ Place, Michael (10 August 2015). "Colombia's river of dreams". Business News Americas. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  11. ^ Hoffman, Andy (8 December 2014). "Trafigura Gross Margin Widens After Oil, Coal Volumes Climb". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  12. ^ "Trafigura announces strong 2014 results; confident future outlook". Commodities Now. 8 December 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  13. ^ Hoffman, Andy (8 December 2014). "Trafigura Gross Margin Widens After Oil, Coal Volumes Climb". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 August 2015.

Corporate structure

The Corporate structure is very much out of date – obviously there isn't much in the way of secondary source material to support something like the following, but as CorporateM suggested above it could be appropriate to use an up-to-date primary source for information like this? This EMTN base prospectus is the most recent publically available document containing this kind of information on the company. Could the following be considered in place of what's currently in this section?

Some of Trafigura's major international units include:

  • Trafigura Beheer B.V., the group’s parent company, incorporated in the Netherlands.
  • Trafigura Group Pte Ltd, Singapore, the entity through which most of the group’s trades are booked.
  • Trafigura Funding S.A., engaged in capital market transactions and private placements.
  • Trafigura Trading LLC, which trades commodities in the US.
  • IWL Holding B.V. and its subsidiaries (Impala Warehousing Group), which account for Trafigura’s bulk-commodity warehousing and logistics.
  • Urion Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries (the Mining Group), which manage Trafigura’s mining-related investments.
  • DT Group, a 50/50 joint venture between Trafigura Pte Ltd and Cochan Ltd, is a logistics and trading company operating in Africa and Asia.
  • Galena Asset Management, a wholly owned subsidiary, is an investment manager of a number of commodity-focused funds and is regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
  • Trafigura also owns 49 per cent of Puma Energy, a mid- and downstream oil storage and distribution business.[1]
  1. ^ "March 2015 EMTN Bond Prospectus" (PDF). Irish Stock Exchange. 18 March 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.

HOgilvy (talk) 21:12, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

I would like to see some independent sources for the additional business units proposed for inclusion. Dormskirk (talk) 21:59, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
Hi Dormskirk, sure understood. I'll see what I can find. Thanks. HOgilvy (talk) 13:24, 1 October 2015 (UTC)