Glencore announces lower metals production by 2024

Glencore reported Thursday that it would lower its copper, cobalt and zinc production, as well as thermal coal, by 2024 in line with the guidance.

The company reported that it would produce 951,600 tons of copper by 2024. This is a 6% decrease from the 1.01 millions tons produced in 2023. This represents the lower end in its forecast of 950,000 to 1.01million tons.

Copper is used for electric vehicle wiring, batteries, green power plants and data centers. The grade erosion of existing mines will exacerbate the predicted supply gap due to an increase in demand for energy transition.

Glencore will announce its production guidance beyond 2025 at its annual financial report on February 19.

The company had said that it expected its marketing earnings before tax and interest (EBIT), for the full year, to be in the range of $3 billion to $3.5 billion. This is at the upper end of the range of $2.2-$3.2 billion.

The trading division's profit, which reached a record of $6.4 billion by 2022, included coal, oil and liquefied gas, along with metals.

After completing the purchase of Teck Resources’ coking coal assets, the miner kept its coal business. It also secured backing from its majority investors who expect lucrative returns from the fossil fuel.

The 2024 steelmaking coking coal production has increased from 7.5 to 19,9 million tons.

Glencore, one of the world's largest producers of thermal coal and exporters, will mine 99.6 millions tons of coal in 2024. This is down from 106.1million tons in 2023. Clara Denina, Jan Harvey and Jan Harvey edited the report.

(source: Reuters)