(Bloomberg) -- Glencore Plc cut its full-year copper-output goal by about 3 percent, citing safety and smelter outages at the Mopani operation in Zambia and a range of mine-plan updates at other operations.

  • The company also cut its targets for nickel and ferrochrome by 7 percent and 3 percent respectively. The commodity trader also said it expected to produce less oil than forecast this year after approval delays in Cameroon.

Key Insights

  • Glencore’s Katanga Mining Ltd. unit, which produces copper and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo, will miss full-year output targets for both metals and is reviewing its business. The company won’t give new guidance until it completes the review in the third quarter.
  • Glencore has been hit by problems in the Congo, the world’s biggest source of cobalt. Katanga halted sales of cobalt in November after detecting radiation and said that a plant to remove the contamination would be ready this year. It said earlier this month it had started some sales again.
  • There was no mention of any changes to the company’s marketing-profits guidance, which it often updates in production reports. At full-year results earlier this year, it said it expects earnings before interest and taxes from marketing to be toward the middle of its $2.2 billion to $3.2 billion long-term range.

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Read More

  • Glencore Faces New Corruption Investigation With CFTC Probe
  • Glencore’s Congo Unit to Start Shipping Some Cobalt Again
  • Glencore Is Top Codelco Customer as Copper-Trading Reach Expands

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Biesheuvel in London at tbiesheuvel@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Liezel Hill, Paul Richardson

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