Rio Tinto Expands Trading to Third-Party Metals and Derivatives

The Rio Tinto Group is expanding its metals trading operations to include third-party metals and financial derivatives, shifting away from a traditional model focused primarily on marketing its own products. Led by CEO Simon Trott and Chairman Dominic Barton, the initiative seeks to increase business agility and maximize profit from existing assets.

The company intends to focus specifically on the alumina market and the North American copper market. In the latter, Rio Tinto plans to utilize spare smelting capacity at its Kennecott operations. While the firm is not attempting to become a standalone trading giant, it aims to grow its capability to buy and sell products for third parties to optimize infrastructure and provide increased optionality for customers.

Commercial operations for this expansion are centralized in a Singapore marketing hub. Additionally, the company is reportedly in talks with Vitol Group to establish a joint venture focused on freight and logistics.