Trafigura Starts Review of Ailing Australian Smelting Assets (1)

Trafigura Group has launched a strategic review of its struggling Nyrstar zinc and lead smelting assets in Australia, with Chief Executive Officer Richard Holtum calling for government intervention.

“Smelting capacity is a national security issue and therefore there probably needs to be significant government support for it,” Holtum, who became Trafigura CEO at the start of this year, said at the Financial Times Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Despite discussions among Western governments over challenging China’s dominance of minerals supply chains, metals processing plants across the world have been under financial strain as competition for raw materials heats up ...