By Amy Lv, Winni Zhou, Ella Cao and Lewis Jackson
SHANGHAI/BEIJING June 6 (Reuters) - Cargill is in talks to sell its metals unit to Macquarie Group, five sources with knowledge of the matter said, as the global trading house aims to focus on its core food and agriculture operations.
All five sources spoke on condition of anonymity given the sale has not yet been announced and they are not authorised to speak to media. They did not disclose further detail about the talks, which are not guaranteed to conclude
with a deal.
Cargill did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment via email and phone.
Macquarie declined to comment.
Cargill's metals unit, headquartered in Singapore, trades 60 million to 70 million metric tons of iron ore and 4 million tons of steel annually with around 130 employees, information on the company's website showed.
The potential spin-off comes at a time when the outlook for iron ore prices is uncertain due to falling demand in top consumer China, where the presence of state buyer China Mineral Resources Group is also reducing the volatility traders profit from.
Cargill exited physical steel trading in China in 2024 as demand slowed in the world's top producer and consumer of the material due to the prolonged slowdown in its property sector.
That year the company also streamlined its business from five into three units: Food, Agriculture and Trading and a specialized portfolio.
"At our core, we have always been a food and ag company," said Brian Sikes, Cargill's chief executive officer, in an internal memo in 2024 reviewed by Reuters.
The potential sale would not be Cargill's first with Macquarie. In 2017, Cargill sold its petroleum business, which includes crude oil and oil products, to the Australian investment bank.
(Reporting by Amy Lv and Winni Zhou in Shanghai, Ella Cao and Lewis Jackson in Beijing, Additional reporting by May Angel in London; Editing by Pratima Desai, Veronica Brown and by Louise Heavens)
