According to Reuters, formal documentation was turned over in an Australian senate hearing that it was consolidating the operations of what was Xstrata, the fellow miner it acquired in 2013.
“Following Glencore’s acquisition of Xstrata we have integrated Xstrata’s coal marketing business into Glencore’s global coal marketing function,” officials reportedly said in the documentation. “Australian coal sales will now be done directly from our Australian companies to end customers.”
Glencore has been at the center of recent rumors that it has been pursuing competitors BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Reuters reported that both have said their Singapore offices were established for customer proximity, not to avoid taxes as the producer has claimed.