© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Glencore is pictured in Baar, Switzerland, September 30, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann//File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -Commodity trader and miner Glencore (OTC:) on Monday cut its nickel production guidance for this year due to maintenance and strikes but reiterated its expectation that profits from its trading division would be $3.5-$4.0 billion, above its long-term guidance range.
Glencore maintained its overall 2023 guidance for , zinc, coal and cobalt output.
Its trading division includes coal, oil, liquefied and related products, as well as metals, whose profit hit a record $6.4 billion in 2022, up 73% from the previous year.
The London-listed miner’s long-term yearly trading guidance earnings is for a number between $2.2 billion and $3.2 billion.
Glencore, which in June offered to buy Teck’s steelmaking coal business as a standalone unit, having been rebuffed twice in its $22.5 billon bid to combine the two companies, lowered its guidance for full-year nickel production by 9% to around 102,000 metric tons.
“Nickel has been reduced to reflect … maintenance outages at the Sudbury smelter and a longer than expected recovery from 2022 strike action, together with a lower full-year revision for Koniambo,” Glencore said in a statement.
Glencore’s own sourced nickel output was down 16% at 68,400 tons in the first three quarters of the year, while its own sourced copper production of 735,800 metric tons fell 5%.
Copper, nickel and cobalt are key materials for electric vehicles, a key plank of the energy transition.
Glencore’s own sourced cobalt production year to date was 32,500 tons down 2% from the same period last year, zinc output at 672,100 tons fell 4% and ferrochrome output at 873,000 tons dropped 21%.
“Ferrochrome production has also been marked lower, due to additional smelter off-line days on account of electricity pricing and load curtailments in South Africa,” Glencore said.
Read the full article here