One year on from taking Nyrstar private, Trafigura chief financial officer Christophe Salmon says the trading firm "made the right choice" by committing $2.9 billion in capital doing so.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fastmarkets, Salmon and Nyrstar chief executive officer Daniel Vanin discussed investment, cost reduction and plans of the company, which is the world's second-largest zinc and lead smelter.
"For us it's not a small commitment - $2.9 billion. It's not every day we do this type of investment," says.
Nyrstar recorded a net loss of $137 million during the first half of Trafigura's 2020 financial year despite making a $370 million contribution to company gross profits. Turning the company around from near-bankruptcy will be a long process, the executives note.
"One of the benefits of the restructuring is to ensure the stability of Nyrstar's financing for the following five years, to give Daniel and his team the time to turn around his business," Salmon says.
The addition of a major asset base and position in the zinc market is new for trading house Trafigura, which...