Steel and metals: the core of the Lugano cluster

The weight of metals in the figures

Every source on the Lugano cluster agrees that metals, and steel in particular, form its centre. The Federal Statistical Office's statistics of commodity traders show that in 2021, of the 117 trading firms in Ticino, 48 traded ores and metals and employed 541 persons, or 60 per cent of the core trading employment in the canton. Nationally the same category accounted for 24.5 per cent of firms and 29.5 per cent of employees.¹ The cantonal yearbook for 2023 counts 45 enterprises with 518 employees in the wholesale trade of metals and minerals, out of a total of 114 enterprises and 873 employees.² In 2022 Swissinfo, relying on estimates of the industry association, reported that 51 of the 123 trading firms registered in Ticino specialized in minerals and metals, with 575 of the roughly 1,000 employees of the sector, and that steel trading represented about 2 per cent of the cantonal GDP and some CHF 70 million of tax revenue a year.³ At the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine about thirty Lugano traders dealt in steel products.⁴

The association itself describes its members as active above all in ferrous and nonferrous metals, particularly steel and gold, and in coal, coke, natural gas and electricity.⁵ A sponsored article in the trade finance journal GTR, published around 2016 with contributions from the association's then general secretary, went further and claimed that about 40 per cent of the steel used in Europe was traded in the canton.⁶ No official statistic confirms this figure, which should be read as an industry estimate of the share of European steel imports and inter-European trade that passes through the books of Ticino firms at some stage of the chain. It may be plausible for some product groups, such as flat products and semi-finished steel imported from outside the Union, but it cannot be verified from public data.

Duferco: trader, industrialist and trader again

The history of Duferco shows the cycle of a trading house that turns into an industrial group and returns to trading. Founded in 1979 as a pure steel trader, the group added steel plants in Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, the United States and South Africa from the mid-1990s onwards. In 2011 it disposed of its steel production assets and founded Duferco Energia in Italy, focused on renewable energy production and gas sales.⁷ In 2015 Duferco sold the majority of its steel trading arm, Duferco International Trading Holding (DITH), to the Chinese Hebei Iron and Steel Group (HBIS, later Hesteel), keeping a minority stake.⁸ The European Commission received the notification of the transaction on 3 March 2015 under case number M.7517. The notice describes HBIS as acquiring a controlling shareholding in DITH, a company incorporated in Luxembourg and active in the trading and distribution of steel products, from Duferco Participations Holding S.A., a Swiss company.⁹

The steel trading business remained in Lugano. In 2022 Swissinfo described Duferco as controlled by the Chinese Hesteel group and trading 13.5 million tonnes of steel a year.¹⁰ In October 2025 the Ticino daily La Regione reported that DITH, with its headquarters in the Molino Nuovo district of Lugano and about 250 employees there, had suffered an operating loss of about USD 31 million in 2024 because of falling steel prices and global competition, and that HBIS intended to reduce its exposure to international steel trading. The newspaper named International Resources Holding (IRH), a company of the Abu Dhabi group International Holding Company, as possible buyer.¹¹ The outcome of these negotiations is not documented in the sources consulted for this chapter. Matteo Somaini, the president of the trading association in 2024 and 2026, is a finance manager of DITH SA according to the association's website.¹²

The Duferco family's remaining businesses in Lugano are energy and shipping. The group lists DXT Commodities SA in Lugano, which trades crude oil, refined products, gas, power and liquefied natural gas, and Nova Marine Carriers SA, a shipping company, together with the technical service company Nova Ship Tech SA and a corporate office.¹³ Nova Marine Carriers, founded in partnership with Vincenzo Romeo, operates a fleet of more than a hundred ships in the dry bulk and cement segments, according to the obituary of Bruno Bolfo published by the Italian shipping press in July 2026.¹⁴ Since 2019 the group has organized its activities in four business areas, and between 2021 and 2023 it invested EUR 250 million in a new rolling mill at San Zeno Naviglio near Brescia with an annual capacity of 700,000 tonnes.¹⁵ The return to steel production in Lombardy confirms the close connection between the Lugano trading houses and the Italian steel districts.

Notes

1. BFS, Statistik der Rohstoffhändler (NMP), tables published 25 August 2023 (above) (Ticino 2021: ores and metals 48 firms and 541 employees; fuels 27 firms and 243 employees; other 42 firms and 117 employees; Switzerland: ores and metals 237 firms and 3,039 employees). ↩
2. USTAT, 12 Denaro e banche (March 2026, above), T. 12.6 (2023: "commercio all'ingrosso di metalli e minerali metalliferi" 45 enterprises, 518 employees, 485.2 FTE). ↩
3. Franchini, Swissinfo, 1 April 2022, German version "Lugano, Herz aus Stahl" (above) (figures attributed to estimates of the industry association). ↩
4. Tio.ch, "Yogurt, salami, materie prime: l'effetto Putin sul Ticino", 25 February 2022, updated 7 March 2022, https://www.tio.ch/ticino/attualita/1568199/yogurt-salami-materie-prime-l-effetto-putin-sul-ticino. ↩
5. LCTA, "Chi siamo" (above). ↩
6. GTR (Global Trade Review), "Sponsored: Success story, focus on Switzerland", vol. 14, issue 2, https://www.gtreview.com/magazine/volume-14issue-2/sponsored-success-story-focus-on-switzerland. The year of the issue (about 2016) is inferred from the reference to the second GTR commodity conference in Ticino on 29 September 2015. ↩
7. Duferco, "Group history" (above). ↩
8. Duferco, "Group history" (above) (sale of the majority stake in DITH to the Hesteel group, with a minority retained). ↩
9. European Commission, Case M.7517 – HBIS/DPH/DITH, prior notification, 3 March 2015, https://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/additional_data/m7517_43_3.pdf. ↩
10. Franchini, Swissinfo, 1 April 2022 (above). ↩
11. La Regione, report on DITH and HBIS, 22 October 2025, https://www.laregione.ch/cantone/luganese/1877736/servizi; Steel Market Update, "International Resources Holding may acquire Duferco trading division: report", 3 November 2025, https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/2025/11/03/international-resources-holding-may-acquire-duferco-trading-division-report/. ↩
12. LCTA, "Comitato esecutivo", https://www.lcta.ch/lcta-comitato-esecutivo/ (Matteo Somaini, President, General Manager Finance, DITH SA); Finews, "Trading di materie prime: i primi diplomati" (May 2024), https://www.finews.ch/ticino/62451-lcta-usi-lugano-trading-materie-prime-i-primi-diplomati; Tio.ch, report on the third CCTS graduation, 22 June 2026, https://www.tio.ch/ticino/attualita/1938622/trading-commodity-saq-lcta-giacomo. ↩
13. Duferco, "Global locations", https://www.duferco.com/global-locations/ (DXT Commodities S.A., Via Trevano 2A, Lugano; Nova Marine Carriers S.A. and Nova Ship Tech S.A., Via Bagutti 5, Lugano). ↩
14. Shipping Italy, "Addio a Bruno Bolfo, portò Duferco dalla siderurgia allo shipping globale", 18 July 2026, https://www.shippingitaly.it/2026/07/18/addio-a-bruno-bolfo-porto-duferco-dalla-siderurgia-allo-shipping-globale/. ↩
15. Duferco, "Group history" (above). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.