Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp began operations at its new coal trading desk in Singapore Monday as part of a wider restructuring of its commodities trading businesses, market sources said Tuesday.
The Japanese trading house announced last December that Singapore would become the headquarters for its new global metals resources trading subsidiary, Mitsubishi Corp. RtM International, from April 1. A company spokesman last Thursday confirmed the company was opening a coal trading office in Singapore, but declined to provide further details.
Market sources said Mitsubishi's coal traders began work on Monday's official start date.
Mitsubishi Corp. said in December that Resources to Market or RtM International would focus on capturing the growth potential of emerging markets, starting with China and India, and aimed to "bridge the gap between producers and end-users and add value to the whole supply chain."
Mitsubishi Corp. has stakes in a number of Australian coal mines, including a 50% interest in a coking coal joint venture in the state of Queensland operated by JV partner BHP Billition.
The trading house said it wanted to move its business away from the traditional commodity-based approach to become more customer-focused.
Mitsubishi Corp. is also expanding its Tokyo-based Unimetals business that specializes in trading base metals such as aluminum for the Japanese market to include a number of commodities such as iron ore, metallurgical and thermal coal and ferro-alloys such as chrome and molybdenum.
The parent company is proposing changing the business name to Mitsubishi Corp. RtM Japan, and dividing the subsidiary into three divisions; metals materials, metals trading and metals products.
