Adding its name to the growing list of companies that have exited the North American energy marketing and trading business, German super-utility RWE AG said last week that RWE Trading Americas — a subsidiary of RWE Trading GmbH — will exit the market before the end of the year.

“Following a recent review of RWE´s trading activities, the future focus will be in the European markets where the company has both a competitive advantage and an asset portfolio,” RWE said in a statement. “As a result it has been decided to close its U.S. operations in Houston.”

The company will still participate in European markets, which are still lucrative to RWE due to its sizeable stable of generation assets. RWE said that in the coming months, RWE Trading Americas will work with all its various stakeholders to ensure a “smooth and orderly exit,” noting that all current contractual commitments will still be honored.

Despite the exit, the company said that its Houston-based coal trading operations will continue under the umbrella of SSM Coal Americas but, at some stage in the future, may be relocated to another existing facility of SSM Coal in the United States.

The trading exit marks the end of a short stay in the North America business for RWE Trading GmbH, which had only entered the U.S. energy trading market in early 2002 under its RWE Trading Americas division.

RWE Trading is located in Essen and is the RWE Group’s wholesale energy marketer and the hub for commodities (electricity, gas, coal and oil) traded groupwide. The company has trading floors in Essen, London and Houston, as well as trading offices in Spain, France, Austria and the Netherlands. As of Dec. 31, 2002, the company employed 518 people, of whom 351 were working in subsidiaries outside of Germany.

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