Glencore cuts 2023 nickel production guidance

Commodity trader and miner Glencore on Monday (Oct 30) 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 US$3.5-US$4 billion, above its long-term guidance range.

Glencore maintained its overall 2023 guidance for copper, zinc, coal and cobalt output.

Its trading division includes coal, oil, liquefied natural gas and related products, as well as metals, whose profit hit a record US$6.4 billion in 2022, up 73 per cent from the previous year.

The London-listed miner’s long-term yearly trading guidance earnings fall between US$2.2 billion and US$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 US$22.5 billon bid to combine the two companies, lowered its guidance for full-year nickel production by 9 per cent 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.

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Glencore’s own sourced nickel output was down 16 per cent 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 per cent.

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 per cent from the same period last year, zinc output at 672,100 tons fell 4 per cent and ferrochrome output at 873,000 tons dropped 21 per cent.

“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. REUTERS