Careers

Our specialist trade finance operation, based in various locations around the globe, works with our bankers to offer customised finance packages to the steel industry. These agreements fund working capital arrangements, including pre-production finance. They also offer consultancy services which include market analysis and research, business planning and due diligence.

The management of financial risk is also fundamental to our success. We have a dedicated Treasury team, based predominantly in London, whose responsibility is to implement, manage and assess these risks. This includes implementation of the decisions of our internal credit committee, the management of payments to and from banks and the overall relationship with those banks. The team's specialist knowledge allows us to approach suitable banks for specialist service and proactively manage the financial risks of transactions.

Given the specialist functions within each team, the opportunities that we may recruit for can vary from an entry level Treasury Assistant who ensures that our daily payments are made and reports are correctly prepared to our Assistant Treasurer who maintains our banking relationships. Within our Structured Trade Finance team, we employ experienced hires who are specialists in their areas whether that be structured finance, project finance or offset and counter trade.

Stemcor’s core business is steel trading. We act as a trading intermediary between producers and purchasers and provide a range of value-adding services. The goods we trade include long, flat, tubular and semi-finished steel products and raw materials for making steel. We also trade specialised products such as engineering steels, stainless steels and steel products for the oil and gas industry.

We are proud of our reputation for attracting raw talent into the organisation at a junior trading level and then nurturing this talent to allow individuals to become our successful traders of the future. Indeed our Group Managing Director started with us as a Trainee Trader over 25 years ago! Because of this track record, we don’t often have to recruit experienced traders externally. However, we are always interested in hearing from steel traders with proven track records, established product expertise and demonstrable trading networks, so if there is not a current opportunity to apply for, please join our Talent Network which allows us to keep in touch.

If you are a recent graduate you may be interested in joining our Trainee Trader Programme, for which we recruit annually in London, and more sporadically in Asia, India and Switzerland. Please see our specific regional careers’ sites for more information.

Our trading support staff, or ‘Progressors’, play a pivotal role in ensuring the successful execution of our transactions, working alongside the traders within the trading departments themselves. Under the direction of the traders they are responsible for working with our specialist teams in documentation, shipping, logistics and trade finance to ensure the successful set up and completion of our trades. This covers everything from the drafting of contracts, through confirmation of shipping arrangements and movement of documents to the submission of invoices.

Because of the importance of the role played by our trading support staff, we are always interested in hearing from individuals who have performed similar roles in physical trading environments and who have the necessary skills to support our traders.

With a core team based in London our documentation specialists are responsible for the timely and accurate creation and movement of contracts, banking documentation and invoices to ensure the rapid and trouble free execution of our trades. Focused on either specific geographies or products, team members develop detailed expert knowledge on the documentation and processes needed to provide the relevant trading team and progressors with the support they need.

Due to the size of this team, opportunities arise fairly infrequently, but successful candidates would have prior experience working within a Documentations Department, either for another trading company, or within a bank.

Our team of shipping and logistics professionals is located worldwide, with four main shipping hubs in London, New York, Singapore and Zug, supported by regional shipping centres in Johannesburg and Sydney and by local logistics people in key locations. These individuals ensure that we can offer a complete logistics service comprising the safe handling, loading, shipping, breaking bulk, storage, insurance, inspection and inland distribution of goods. 

Within our shipping team individuals are responsible for working with shipbrokers to identify cost effective chartering options for our traders and typically have some background in shipbroking. 

Our logistics team ensures the overall movement of our products is done efficiently and cost effectively.

Both departments are fairly small in number, and we typically recruit experienced individuals. However, we are always interested in hearing from individuals who have experience gained from working within a similar physical trading company, a freight forwarder or a freight brokers.

Stemcor’s specialist price risk management team employs a range of derivative tools to hedge the Group’s exposure to physical market price fluctuations. A small team at present, based in London, job opportunities are limited but we expect the function to go from strength to strength as the market develops and we would always be interested to hear from individuals with demonstrable front, middle or back office experience in metals derivative markets.

In our role as a bulk breaker at port and wholesale distributor, we bring steel from anywhere within our international network and offer an essential feeder service to the retail end of the supply chain, primarily stockholders, service centres and large end-users.

Career opportunities therefore exist in trading/sales – developing relationships with suppliers and customers to generate sales as well as supporting functions such as trade support, logistics, credit control, finance and operations.

Stemcor’s stockholding and service centre units meet the needs of customers who purchase in smaller quantities for prompt delivery.

Stockholding offers a wide spectrum of career opportunities from sales and office administration to drivers, fabricators and warehouse operatives. For more details please visit the websites of our subsidiary stockholding companies.

Stemcor has a history of investing in mines and related processing operations. This direct participation in mining secures access to iron ore feed which is sold to the steel producing partners from whom we purchase steel products. Stemcor’s current mining resources are based in India. For career opportunities in mining, please refer to the section on India.

Business support encompasses the core enabling functions, providing the support framework for the rest of the business to operate. The business support ‘areas’ within Stemcor include: IT, Accounts, HR, Legal and Communications.

Our IT department is predominantly located in London and Zug and includes a range of functions, from the Helpdesk to our team of Business Analysts. The team is instrumental in designing, developing and supporting all business applications and is currently embarking on a multi-million pound Enterprise Resource Planning project to change all our trading based systems. We also have small support teams in Germany, America and Asia to ensure 24hr cover and local support in key locations.

Our Accountants are typically split into unit accounting departments around the world, whereby they cover the whole range of accounting responsibilities, from reconciliations, purchase and sale ledgers to management reporting. All unit accountants submit their management accounts into our centralised Consolidation Accounting team, which is based in London. We provide our accountants with excellent career opportunities – most of them start with us as recent graduates or at a junior level, and then continue their career with us post qualification.

Our HR and Legal teams are based in the London office and although small in number, offer support to the global business. The HR team ensures compliance with local employment law as well as advising the business on all human resource issues, including recruitment, employee relations, training and development and performance management. The legal team deals with all company secretarial matters as well as providing legal counsel to the business on a range of commercial issues.

The role of our Communications department can be split into three broad areas – external, marketing and internal communications. It is responsible for enhancing our corporate reputation among all stakeholders and for undertaking promotional activities for specific units. It works closely with the HR team to ensure employee engagement through for example, the use of internal newsletters and our intranet.

We tend to recruit into business support areas throughout the year, so please see our Current Opportunities page for specific, live vacancies.