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Cargill Inc., the agriculture and trading giant, said Thursday that it would close a division that trades coal, as well as European power and gas, after a strategic review of the businesses. Cargill, one of the world's largest privately owned companies, said in a statement that it is exiting the businesses because of "significant changes in the coal and European power and gas markets." It didn't identify those changes. Separately, Cargill and Copersucar SA, a Brazilian sugar and ethanol trader, agreed to combine their global sugar-trading activities, creating a new joint venture that will source and trade sugar. The Geneva-based energy-trading operation Cargill is closing is part of its energy, transportation and metals division. Cargill estimates it buys nearly $5 billion of energy a year. Reduced coal consumption in some countries, such as the U.S., has lifted global supplies of coal in recent years and depressed prices, intensifying competition for markets that still need the fuel. Coking coal, used for making steel, is trading at its lowest level in eight years, while prices of thermal coal, used in power generation, are the weakest since 2009. Cargill said it would continue to trade in petroleum, petrochemicals, iron ore and steel, ocean freight and North American gas and power markets. Last month, SparkSpread.com, an energy-market publication, reported that Cargill suffered losses of at least $100 million trading in energy markets early this year, mostly in mid-Atlantic power markets. The publication didn't cite a source for its information. Pete Stoddart, a spokesman for Cargill, said Thursday that the company doesn't disclose the results of individual business units, but said the $100 million-loss figure was inaccurate. He said the decision to exit the coal and European power businesses was unrelated to the U.S. power operation. The Cargill-Copersucar sugar venture will be 50%-owned by each company. Other financial terms weren't disclosed. The venture will benefit from a large supply of sugar from Copersucar's partner mills in Brazil, the world's largest sugar producer and exporter, and from both companies' logistics-management experience, the companies said. The venture's trading activities will be based in Geneva, with offices in locations including Hong Kong, São Paulo, Brazil; Miami, Moscow and Dubai. Ivo Sarjanovic, who leads Cargill's sugar business, will be chief executive once the new company is formed, which is expected in the second half of 2014. Copersucar Chairman Luis Roberto Pogetti will become the first chairman of the venture, a post that will rotate. Both companies' ethanol businesses and fixed assets, such as terminals and mills, are excluded from the transaction. Each company will continue to own its own logistics and infrastructure facilities, but these will serve the joint venture, according to a spokesman for Copersucar. The deal will help Copersucar shore up its logistics reach after a massive fire in October damaged six of its Brazilian sugar warehouses, used to store and ship sugar at the port of Santos. Shipments of sugar from the port dropped by about 40% after the fire. Copersucar is repairing its Santos terminal and by February 2015 expects to have the capacity to receive and ship 10 million tons of sugar a year, an average of about 800,000 to a month, up from a current 250,000 a month. The deal comes as other commodity companies have struggled in the sugar business. Bunge Ltd. last month said it hired Morgan Stanley to advise on a strategic review of its money-losing sugar milling operation, which has been hurt by low world sugar prices and caps on the price of ethanol produced from sugar cane in Brazil. Archer Daniels Midland Co., in financial results reported in February, recorded a $50 million impairment of its investment in a Brazilian sugar mill, based on a new assessment of future cash flows from the business. Cargill, founded in 1865, has diverse operations including processing meat, selling steel and making pharmaceutical ingredients, in addition to trading grain, energy and other commodities and transporting goods across a sprawling global logistics network.