INTERVIEW-After oil, JPMorgan eyes physical base metals trade

* JPMorgan eyes physical trade in oil and coal

* Returning to Australia commodities after long gap

* China will remain a key area of focus for the bank

* Oil prices may have run ahead of fundamentals

SINGAPORE, Aug 25 - JPMorgan Chase & Co is set to deepen its aggressive commodities market expansion by starting to trade physical base metals and coal, and re-entering Australia after a five-year absence, with Asia the priority.

JPMorgan wants to hire more staff in Asia, Oral W. Dawe, the bank's chief executive officer for the Asia Pacific Global Commodities Group told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

The bank has expanded its Asia-based personnel by 30 percent over the past 12 months, helping swell its global ranks to 500, challenging entrenched giants Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. "Commodities remain one of the top three global priorities for the bank. Emerging markets also remain a top priority. We in Asia happen to be on the intersection of those two priorities that will help us to grow," said Dawe, who joined JPMorgan from Goldman last year.

"We are looking into starting physical trading in base metals globally and there will also be special emphasis on coal."

"Our approach, I would describe it as more incremental. You will see us involved in base metals market in 2010," he added. The bank has been trading physical crude and oil products in Asia since late last year.

JPMorgan added about 50 people last year in commodities globally, with the total in Asia rising to 110.

"That number will be higher by next year," Dawe added. "We will continue to invest in China since we have a long-term view."

Dawe said that the bank had put back staff in Australia after a gap of five years to boost its presence in the country's agriculture, energy and carbon markets, all of which are growing as the wheat industry liberalises, gas production booms and the government pushed for a cap-and-trade carbon emissions scheme.

A whole raft of investment banks moved into commodities during the six-year price boom, but last year's credit crisis forced some to drop out of the race, including Lehman Brothers and Swiss bank UBS..

The longstanding players are Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, while Barclays Capital has built a sizeable business over the past decade.

JPMorgan has integrated the commodities business of Bear Stearns, which it acquired last year. In addition, the bank bought all of UBS's Canadian-based commodities energy business, Canadian Energy, from UBS's investment bank by purchasing shares in UBS Warburg Energy Holdings.

"The idea of growing our staff is not to come out with complex products but to build capacity which would help us to provide more alternatives to our investors," Dawe added.

MARKET OUTLOOK

Commenting on the markets, Dawe said that while strong fundamentals were currently driving base metal prices, oil may have run ahead of fundamentals, tracking equities markets.

"Oil markets are well supplied markets for today's environment. But investors are trading on future expectations. There is a wall of cash out there, given that central banks around the world have driven down interest rates."

"In the short term, you don't need oil to be at $75 a barrel for oil producers to produce oil. Is that what is needed in the long term ? Maybe," he added.