By Amy Lv and Tony Munroe
BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Global grain and metals trader Cargill will stop physical steel trading within China, it said on Tuesday, as demand has softened in the world’s top producer and consumer of the metal amid a prolonged slowdown in its property sector.
Steel prices in China have sunk 10% from the beginning of the year despite a slew of stimulus measures aimed at reviving the property sector.
“Following an in-depth study of the market and the business model, Cargill decided to optimise its steel business in China and cease physical steel trading in the Chinese domestic market,” Oliver Handasyde Dick, Cargill’s head of China metals trading, said in a client notice in Chinese seen by Reuters.
U.S.-based Cargill confirmed it had decided this week to discontinue physical steel trading in China, and that affected employees had been notified.
“China remains a critical part of Cargill’s metal business, and we are committed to serve China customers leveraging our global expertise in trading and risk management,” it said in a statement to Reuters.
Cargill’s annual physical steel trade in China stood at 2 million metric tons, accounting for a third of its global physical steel business, its website showed.
(Reporting by Amy Lv in Beijing and Tony Munroe in Singapore; Editing by David Goodman and Bernadette Baum)
