Introduction to the Top Ten Global Commodity Trading Companies

Target Partners Introduction to the Top Ten Global Commodity Trading Companies Futures Magazine ranked the world’s ten largest commodity trading companies. Their combined total revenue amounts to $1.9 trillion, and they employ over 526,000 people. I. Vitol Group Revenue: $231 billion CEO & President: Russel Hardy Chairman: Ian Taylor Founded: 1966 by Ian Taylor Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland; Rotterdam, Netherlands Listing Status: Privately held Number of Employees: 5,441 Key Commodities Traded: Vitol is the world’s largest physical oil and gas trader, with crude oil constituting the most critical component of its business. The company also trades other commodities, including sugar, metals, and grains. Vitol transports over 350 million tons of crude oil annually and controls more than 250 supertankers and other vessels to ship crude oil worldwide. On average, it handles over 7 million barrels of oil and petroleum products per day. II. Glencore International 2018 Revenue: $219 billion Founded: Originally established in 1974 as Marc Rich & Co. by Marc Rich Key Executives: Ivan Glasenberg and Tony Hayward Headquarters: Baar, Switzerland; London (oil and gas); Rotterdam (agricultural commodities) Listing Status: Listed on the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: GLEN) Number of Employees: 158,000 Key Commodities Traded: Glencore is one of the world’s largest traders of metals, minerals, and oil. Although it owns substantial coal, metal, and oil assets, the majority of its revenue derives from commodity trading—$219 billion in 2018. Glencore is particularly active in aluminum, copper, zinc, and other materials. III. Trafigura 2018 Revenue: $180.7 billion CEO & President: Jeremy Weir Founded: 1993 by Claude Dauphin, Eric de Turkheim, and Graham Sharp. Trafigura spun off from the corporate group formerly run by Marc Rich. Headquarters: Singapore; Geneva Listing Status: Privately held Number of Employees: 4,300 Key Commodities Traded: Primarily energy-related commodities; Trafigura also engages in non-ferrous metals trading and shipping operations. IV. Mercuria Energy Group 2018 Revenue: $122 billion CEO & President: Marco Dunand Founded: 2004 by former Phibro executives Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland Listing Status: Privately held Number of Employees: 1,000 Key Commodities Traded: Mercuria primarily trades energy commodities—including crude oil and petroleum products such as fuel oil, middle distillates, naphtha, and gasoline—as well as electricity, natural gas, coal, and biodiesel.

What do you know about Vitol Group—the world’s largest private company?

I happened to have had some limited contact with a subsidiary of Vitol Group—here are a few distinctive features of Vitol: 1. Full name: The Vitol Group; founded in 1966; headquartered in Rotterdam; 2. A privately operated company with a very small number of shareholders (around seven or eight—I don’t recall the exact figure); 3. Even amid U.S. sanctions against Iran, Vitol managed to export crude oil from Iran; 4. According to publicly available data, its annual revenue in 2013 was $307 billion. It truly feels like a colossal whale lurking deep in the ocean.

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