I was having a look at our first major distribution agreement with Metal Exchange Corporation (MEC). MEC will sell a minimum of 8,000tpa of Mg produced from LMG's 10,000tpa+ plant in Victoria.
What I found interesting is that the "distribution agreement" is for markets within North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. At this point in time, no other regions/markets have been mentioned.
Looking further into the MEC website I found an old news release dated March 14, 2019.
"Metal Exchange Corporation (MEC) has announced the opening of a trading office in Singapore to serve the South and Southeast Asia markets."
"The Singapore office, MEC Global Trading Pte Ltd, will be led by Craig Weber, Global Business
Manager. Craig has 24 years of experience with MEC and has previously established both the Zurich trading office and the Shanghai representative office."
“Establishing a presence in Singapore will enhance the access and expertise of MEC to deliver results for our trading partners,” said Mr. Weber. “With the ever-changing metals environment, Singapore puts MEC in the center of Southeast Asia markets, closer to our customer base and set up for our continued growth plan,” Mr. Weber said."
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Like a nong, I realised the very likely significance of MEC's current contract, the location of their new office in Singapore (Adjacent to Malaysia) and MEC's likely increasing future relationship with LMG and our 100,000tpa plant in Malaysia.
The synergies of the Malaysian plant location, port facilities, hydroelectric power, feedstock agreement with Société Le Nickel (SLN) and numerous other regional sources of ferro nickel slag supply, were already good. The idea that the LMG manufacturing hub in Malaysia could also be supported by our current partner (MEC) distribution office in Singapore, makes a great deal of sense imo.
Singapore puts MEC in the center of Southeast Asia markets and therefore the opportunity for LMG to increase a contract for broader global distribution. I would not be surprised at all if MEC feature in the LMG pathway a great deal more in the future.
