Trafigura joins FMC as a founding member of the group's new aluminium division

On 25^th May 2022, the leader in the global commodity sector, Trafigura Group Pte Ltd. adhered as a founding member of the First Movers Coalition, which is led by the World Economic Forum and the US government, the First Movers Coalition (FMC) aims the heavy industry and long-distance transport sectors responsible for 30% of global emissions – a proportion expected to inflate to over 50% by mid-century without urgent progress on clean technology innovation.

However, the announcement of a vital expansion of the First Movers Coalition was compelled by John Kerry, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate alongside Bill Gates, the founder of Breakthrough Energy, at a press briefing hosted by the World Economic Forum at its Annual Meeting 2022.

The US President Biden launched the Coalition at COP26, which now has over 50 corporate members valued at more than $8.5 trillion, representing more than 40% of global GDP, in addition to nine leading governments, including the US. Furthermore, the FMC introduced two new sectors: carbon dioxide removal and aluminium, adding to the four sectoral pledges previously announced (aviation, shipping, steel, and trucking) at COP26 in November 2021.

As part of the coalition's new aluminium sector, Trafigura joins Ball Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Novelis and Volvo Group. The companies have committed to purchasing 10% of primary aluminium that is near-zero carbon by 2030 using advanced technologies that are not yet commercially available.

Jeremy Weir, the Executive Chairman and CEO of Trafigura said, “In making this new commitment we are sending a firm market demand signal for emerging technologies essential for a net-zero transition.”

Trafigura is a vital player in the aluminium market, managing the supply chains between producers and customers. With the advent of new technologies and producers' ongoing effort to shift to renewable energy, the company has supported the decarbonisation of the aluminium industry, including providing a low carbon aluminium financing facility launched in 2020 to enable lower-cost financing and pass on the savings to producers to incentivize lower carbon production.

“We believe that near-zero and low-carbon aluminium will be a premium product in the market once the technologies required to start to be commercially deployed and we’re delighted to help to accelerate this process,” concluded Jeremy Weir.

In its role as a founding member of the FMC, Trafigura is committed to purchasing and using zero-carbon shipping fuels by 2030.