Cargill considers using LME's steel futures

BERLIN (Reuters) - Leading U.S.-based commodities trader Cargill CARG.UL is mulling the use of London Metal Exchange (LME) steel futures contracts, a senior company official said on Monday.

"We are quite hopeful ... that we will have the ability to participate," Bob Mann, vice-president business development at Cargill Ferrous International, told Reuters in an interview at a Platts Steel Conference.

The LME's long-anticipated steel contracts are due to start trading on the electronic platform Select on February 25. Ring trading will kick-off at the end of April.

Cargill has been involved in physical steel trading for the last 40 years. The company trades and processes around 10 millions of iron and steel annually.

Mann said they were also interested in the New York Mercantile Exchange's (NYMEX) planned steel contracts and that Cargill was hiring staff to concentrate more on this business.

"We do see this business evolving on a regional basis. The needs of different markets will be different and different derivatives tools will be available to respond to those needs. We want to be able to monitor all those," he said.

"There certainly will not be one solution for all because of the regional nature."

Mann said they were in an 'education process' at the moment and that the company wanted to be prepared before LME futures start trading.

"We feel we want to get a start on understanding and education, -- how we should be organizing ourselves in order to capture the value," he said.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, editing by Peter Blackburn)