6th Aug 2025 08:37
(Alliance News) - Glencore PLC on Wednesday revealed a wider interim loss, as the miner and commodities trader battled against rising costs, while grappling with weaker coal prices and lower copper production.
Glencore shares were down 3.5% to 290.40 pence in London early Wednesday. There were down 4.4% to ZAR68.97 in Johannesburg.
The Barr, Switzerland-based commodity trading and mining company suffered a pretax loss of USD1.13 billion for the six months that ended June 30, deteriorating from a loss of USD370 million a year earlier, due to higher costs.
Selling and administrative expenses rose 22% to USD1.21 billion from USD991 million, while interest expense was up 11% to USD1.57 billion from USD1.41 billion.
Share of income from associates and joint ventures declined 22% to USD527 million from USD679 million. Impairment of impairments of financial assets amounted to USD136 million, compared to reversal of USD16 million.
Revenue for the first-half was up marginally to USD117.40 billion from USD117.09 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was USD5.43 billion, down 14% from USD6.34 billion, mainly due to weaker coal prices and lower copper volumes.
The average Richards Bay coal terminal export price dropped 8.9% to USD92 per tonne from USD101 a year before, Glencore noted, while the Newcastle benchmark coal price slumped 21% to USD103 a tonne from USD131.
Glencore's own copper production fell 26% to 343,900 tonnes for the six months that ended June 30 from 462,600 tonnes a year prior.
Marketing adjusted earnings before interest and tax fell 8% to USD1.4 billion.
"An overall solid result against a macroeconomic environment that was heavily influenced by US tariff policy uncertainty and tensions in the Middle East," Glencore said.
Basic loss per share was USD0.05, widened from USD0.02.
Glencore said it will pay a second tranche of a USD0.05 dividend in September.
Glencore also launched a new USD1 billion share buyback to return funds from its Viterra deal. Early last month, Glencore said the merger between its agriculture investment Viterra Ltd and New York-listed Bunge Global SA had closed. It received 32.8 million Bunge shares, equal to a 16.4% stake in the enlarged group, as well as around USD900 million in cash.
As at June 30, net debt was USD14.47 billion, up 30% from USD11.17 billion at December 31.
"A comprehensive review of our industrial portfolio during the period has recognised opportunities to streamline our industrial operating structure, to optimise departmental management and reporting, and to support enhanced technical expertise and operational focus," Glencore Chief Executive Officer Gary Nagle said.
This review also identified USD1 billion of recurring cost savings opportunities across various operating structures, Nagle said.
With the completion of the Viterra sales process, Glencore increased its long-term through-the-cycle adjusted Ebit marketing guidance range to between USD2.3 billion and USD3.5 billion. The new midpoint of USD2.9 billion represents an increase of 16% from USD2.5 billion.
By Artwell Dlamini, Alliance News senior reporter South Africa
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