Glencore raises full-year marketing guidance again

[LONDON] Glencore increased its full-year marketing guidance for earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to between US$2.6 billion and US$2.8 billion, reflecting the mining and trading company's continued recovery from the commodity crash that ended last year.

Its previous guidance was US$2.4 billion to US$2.7 billion, which already an upward revision from US$2.1 billion to US$2.4 billion at the start of the year.

Glencore issued the guidance in its third-quarter output report, which showed lower output for some commodities, citing operational difficulties and end-of-mine-life declines in some places, but it said full-year earnings would not suffer.

For zinc output, it lowered its 2017 guidance to 1.1 million tonnes from 1.13 million tonnes seen in August.

Glencore's zinc output has been in focus as a strong market has raised questions over whether Glencore would bring back production it shut in when the market was much weaker.

CEO Ivan Glasenberg has said he will only raise zinc output once he is confident any increase will not drag the market lower.

REUTERS