Vitol hires SEFE metals head de Sousa to boost copper team

Vitol Group has hired the head of base metals trading at German state-owned energy firm SEFE to join its copper team as the energy trading giant continues efforts to expand into the metals business.

Adrien de Sousa, who started a base metals trading desk at Securing Energy for Europe GmbH in Singapore six months ago, will join Vitol later this year and report to head of copper Bruno Porto, according to people familiar with the move, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. De Sousa will be in charge of refined copper trading, one of the people said.

Vitol has made a series of hires as it competes for a piece of the global metals trading market, a business long-dominated by Glencore Plc and Trafigura Group. It’s part of a move by some of the biggest oil and gas traders to diversify, with metals being touted as key beneficiaries of the energy transition.

A spokesperson for Vitol declined to comment. SEFE confirmed that de Sousa is leaving the company and a search for his successor is under way.

Vitol has hired traders from Glencore and Citigroup Inc. as it added iron ore, aluminum and more recently copper, to its portfolio.

Other energy traders, including Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. and Gunvor Group, have also been expanding in metals, driving a hiring spree across the industry.

De Sousa joined SEFE in October 2024 after spending almost 10 years in Mitsubishi Corp.’s metals trading business in a senior role. Before that he worked as senior aluminum trader at Norwegian producer Norsk Hydro and as a risk officer at Louis Dreyfus Co., according to his LinkedIn page.

(By Anna Shiryaevskaya and Alfred Cang)