Trafigura, a well known commodities trader has announced its interest in purchasing the exclusive rights to purchase the zinc from Nyrstar, the world's number one producer. The deal is expected to net about US$700 million per year.
According to an anonymous source who confirmed the interest by email, said "Trafigura does (have) an interest in bidding Nyrstar's zinc contract."
Trafigura is viewed by many market analysts as the front runner among the many trading houses and banking institutions for the finalization of the sale. It has the possibility of strengthening a trading house's position or catapult a middle level trading firm to the top players in the market.
Another trading firm, Louis Dreyfus Commodities had earlier expressed interest in purchasing the contract. Louis Dreyfus is one of the largest agricultural traders in the industry. Other rumors floated include a trading firm named Traxys taking interest in the deal.
The original trader for the European zinc of Nyrstar was Glencore, who had an existing deal volume of 350, 000 tonnes. The deal had to be scrapped to comply with EU anti-monopoly rules when Glencore took over Xstrata, a competitor of Nyrstar.
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