GLENCORE said on Wednesday its trading profit for the 2024 financial year would test the high end of guidance, set at between $2.2bn to $3.2bn.
Commenting in its third quarter production update on Wednesday, Glencore CEO Gary Nagle said the full year adjusted ebit for marketing would come in between $3bn to $3.5bn.
Its trading division, whose profit hit a record $6.4bn in 2022, includes coal, oil, liquefied natural gas and related products, as well as metals, according to a report by Reuters.
Glencore also kept production guidance unchanged for all its key metals after reporting lower copper, cobalt, zinc, nickel and thermal coal production for the first nine months.
The miner and trader’s own sourced copper production fell 4% to 705,200 tons, while its own sourced cobalt output fell 18% to 26,500 tons, said Reuters. Glencore left its overall 2024 outlook for copper, a metal needed for energy transition applications, unchanged at between 950,000 and 1.01 million tons (Mt).
The miner has kept its coal business after concluding the purchase of Teck Resources’ coking coal assets and securing backing from a majority of its investors who see lucrative earnings from the fossil fuel.
Shareholders expressed a preference for keeping the cash generated from coal production within the group, said Glencore at the time. In addition, “numerous shareholders expressed scepticism” regarding the scale of the valuation uplift from the remaining assets (MetalsCo), it added.
Nagle in August said the company could acquire more steelmaking coal.
Glencore is one of the largest producers and exporters of thermal coal, with an expected output of between 98Mt and 106Mt this year. It produced 73.1 million tons so far, 7% lower than year-ago levels.
Its 2024 steelmaking coal production should increase to 19 to 21Mt post-acquisition, from seven million to nine million tons.
The decision to retain coal was no great surprise especially after 90% of shareholders approved Glencore’s Climate Action Transition Plan (CATP) at its annual general meeting in May.
Glencore reported an interim net loss of $233m for the six months ended June after recognising impairment charges of $1bn, largely on its shuttered Koniambo nickel assets in New Caledonia, and a write-down ($611m) on South African coal related to the country’s rail infrastructure constraints and lower expected coal prices. A further $700m of additional “significant items” were registered.
