ANOTHER overseas player has entered the WA grain market.
Swiss-based and Dutch-owned energy and commodity trading company Vitol emerged as a new buyer of WA grain, when it participated in the recent port capacity shipping auction held by CBH last week.
It is believed Vitol has secured about 400,000 tonnes of capacity at WA ports including Kwinana and Geraldton
Results of the blind auction for capacity at CBH's four grain terminals were released last week and showed Vitol had purchased slots for February, April, May, June and July at Kwinana and March in Geraldton.
Vitol, the world's largest independent oil trader, announced plans to begin trading in global grain markets in April this year.
Vitol Group president and chief executive Ian Taylor said at the time that trading agricultural products builds on the company's core strengths in logistics and understanding of global markets.
"This is a natural extension for the business," Mr Taylor said.
The company initially announced plans to trade grain and other agricultural commodities globally from Singapore and Geneva, supported by teams based in Vancouver and Hamburg.
But it seems the WA market has also piqued the company's interest, which is little surprise seeing as it is the largest grain exporting State in Australia.
The global team is headed up by Don Chapman, based in Vancouver.
Mr Chapman has held top tier positions in the global grains market, including senior vice-president with Viterra after a stint with Toepfer International.
Despite Vitol's unexpected participation and hefty buy up, CBH dominated the auction.
Other successful bidders included Glencore, Cargill, Bunge, GrainCorp, Toepfer, Plum Grove and Mitsui.
CBH operations manager David Capper said it was great to see more competition for WA grain.
"It's good news for our industry to have another strong bidder accumulating tonnes in WA," Mr Capper said.
Vitol was contacted for comment but did not respond prior to going to print.
