{"id":1199196,"date":"2020-07-31T09:58:24","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T14:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1031413"},"modified":"2020-07-31T09:58:24","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T14:58:24","slug":"glencores-strong-h1-performance-boosted-by-oil-trading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1199196","title":{"rendered":"Glencore\u2019s strong H1 performance boosted by oil trading"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glencore Plc (LON: GLEN) said trading profit will be at the top end of its target this year but posted lower production figures for its first half<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The company made nearly $1 billion in earnings before interest and taxes in oil trading in the first six months of 2020, similar to what it made in the whole of 2019, Bloomberg reported<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

In March and April, as oil prices plunged, traders were able to buy and store huge amounts of cheap crude before selling it on later for higher prices. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur marketing business has risen to the challenge, delivering robust counter-cyclical earnings,\u201d Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg said in a statement Friday. <\/p>\n

\u201cA very strong first-half performance allows us to now raise our full year 2020 EBIT expectations to the top end of our $2.2-$3.2 billion guidance range.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company reported copper production of 588,100 tonnes in H1, 74,900 tonnes (11%) lower than H1 2019, mainly reflecting Mutanda mine in DRC being on care and maintenance, expected lower grades at Antapaccay in Peru and the short-term impact of Antamina\u2019s covid-19 related demobilisation<\/a> in Peru. The impact was partly offset by stronger milling throughput at Collahuasi mine in Chile.<\/p>\n

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Company plans to cut coal production after prices tumble<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

“Iam particularly pleased to report a strong operational performance at Katanga, with its ramp-up on track to achieve design capacity by the end of the year.” said Glasenberg.<\/p>\n

Glencore’s zinc production was 550,100 tonnes, in line with H1 2019, reflecting stronger grades at the Canadian mines and the various temporary covid-19 related suspensions at Antamina and other South American operations.<\/p>\n

Nickel production of 55,200 tonnes was in line with H1 2019, reflecting a strong period of operations at Murrin mine in Western Australia.<\/p>\n

Coal production of 58.1 million tonnes was 10.1 million tonnes (15%) lower than H1 2019, mainly reflecting the covid-19 related asset suspensions in Colombia.<\/p>\n

Dividend<\/h2>\n

Glencore warned its net debt, which is already the highest among mining companies, would be higher in the first half of the year. <\/p>\n

In March, it deferred a decision to pay a $2.6 billion dividend until interim results next week. <\/p>\n

“While we expect our operating cash flow to remain solid, we are ready to adapt to changing market conditions.\u201d said Glasenberg.<\/p>\n

“I suspect the company will be under a degree of pressure to pay dividend given the payouts from Rio Tinto and Anglo American,” said BMO Capital Markets analyst Edward Sterck.<\/p>\n

Glencore\u2019s stock was down 1.1% on the LSE on Friday (3:13PM BST). The company has a $30.6 billion market capitalization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Company said trading profit will be at the top end of its target this year but posted lower production figures for its first half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[949,369,4,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1199196"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1199282,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199196\/revisions\/1199282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1199196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1199196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1199196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}