Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman of steel and aluminium investment company GFG Alliance, will head the roster at the London Metal Exchange's virtual seminar this year, the LME announced on August 28.
The virtual seminar will start on Monday October 19, 2020 and replaces the annual LME week gathering of metal market participants in London, which has been canceled amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gupta has over two decades of experience in the metals and commodities markets since founding metal and industrial company Liberty House Group in 1992 while he was a university undergraduate.
The LME's announcement of Gupta as keynote speaker is timely given GFG's developing business interest in green products, a topic currently at the forefront of the industry amid ongoing calls for carbon neutrality.
The LME published a discussion paper on metal market sustainability earlier in August, which outlined plans to launch contracts to support the recycled, scrap and electric vehicle (EV) industries.
These plans include the LME passport, a digital register to enable a voluntary market-wide sustainable aluminium labellling program alongside the launch of a spot trading platform for price discovery and the trading of low carbon aluminium for interested parties.
The
consultation period closes on September 24, a month before the virtual seminar commences.
Gupta declared in 2019 that Liberty Steel Group aimed to become carbon neutral by 2030, the steel industry's first such announcement.
GFG last year acquired green aluminium group Alvance, before announcing on August 26, 2020 that the company's
Dunkerque plant in France had attained Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) status.