4th Nov 2014 08:26
LONDON (Alliance News) - Glencore PLC Tuesday said oil, coal and copper production increased during the third quarter as new wells came into production and output from some mines rose, although zinc and nickel production dropped as the company achieved lower prices for most of its commodities compared with 2013.
The company's entitlement oil production rose to 5.1 million barrels during the third quarter ended October 31, a 50% increase from the same period in 2013, thanks to the start of production at two wells during 2013 and the acquisition of Caracal in July, which increased Glencore's stake in the assets based in Chad, giving it a higher entitlement to oil production.
Glencore's average Brent oil price achieved during the first nine months of the year was USD107 per barrel, compared to USD108 per barrel a year earlier.
During the quarter, own sourced copper production totalled 1.1 million tonnes, up 8% from a year earlier, mainly driven by a 48% increase in production at the Mutanda and Kutanda mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Production from its copper mines in Africa increased by 24% from the previous year, whilst the Collahuasi project in Chile also saw production rise by 18%. Copper production in Australia also increased by 7% during the third quarter. The increases were slightly offset by a 17% decrease in copper production from its interest in the Antamina project in Peru.
For the first nine months of the year, Glencore have achieved an average copper price of USD6,944 per tonne, down 6% from the previous year of USD7,384 per tonne.
Coal production totalled 111.4 million tonnes during the third quarter, up 7% from a year earlier due to higher production from its thermal coal operations in Australia after implementing productivity improvements.
The company sells its coal using various prices and saw a reduction in every coal price achieved during the first nine months of the year compared with 2013. The biggest drop was the average domestic price for its Australian thermal coal, which dropped 33% between 2013 and 2014.
Own sourced zinc production totalled 998,000 tonnes during the quarter, down 6% from a year earlier due to the closure of the Perseverance and Brunswick mines. This has been slightly offset by increased production at the Perkoa mine, which started production in April 2013. Glencore's production has risen quarter on quarter during 2014, it said in a statement.
During the third quarter, zinc production remained flat from the previous year at its operations in Australia, whilst production from its Kazzinc mine in Kazakhstan rose 8% from the previous year. A 37% reduction in production from its zinc assets in North America after the closure of the Brunswick and Perseverance mines caused the slight decline overall.
During the nine months to the end of October, the company achieved a zinc price of USD2,139 per tonne, up 12% from 2013 when the average price stood at USD1,910 per tonne.
Own sourced nickel production was down 1% from 2013, to 75,000 tonnes during the quarter. The slight reduction was caused by a 16% decrease in production from its assets in Australia, despite a 15% increase from its integrated nickel operations.
The average nickel price for the first nine months of the year rose by 12% to USD17,242 per tonne, compared to USD15,392 per tonne in the comparable period a year earlier.
Ferrochrome production rose 5% to 939,000 tonnes, reflecting a higher capacity and a ramp up in production from the Lion 2 expansion project in South Africa. The expansion project is set to reach its full capacity during the middle of 2015, which will see production increases follow, it said in a statement.
Glencore shares were down 1.7% to 309.75 pence per share Tuesday morning, one of the worst-performing stocks on the FTSE 100.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Glencore