Glencore output falls but copper grows by 15%

Glencore reduced production of most commodities in the first half of 2026. Copper is the main exception, with an increase of 15% against the same period a year earlier.

The other metals follow a different path. Cobalt records the sharpest fall at 46%, followed by gold at 44% and zinc at 21%. Silver, by contrast, grew by 2%.

Coal is also down. Coking coal fell by 14%, while coal for energy production lost 2%.

The trading division's contribution

The group does not live on extraction alone. For its marketing division, that is the buying and selling of commodities, Glencore expects a half-year operating result of around 3.3 billion dollars, equivalent to 2.7 billion francs. In the same period a year earlier the figure was 1.4 billion dollars.

Chief executive Gary Nagle described the production results of the first six months as excellent, noting that the main assets performed broadly as expected. The full accounts will be published on 5 August.

The divergence between extracted volumes and the trading result is a feature of the group's model. The margin on trading depends on price volatility and on the ability to exploit differences between markets, and can move in the opposite direction to production.

Glencore is based at Baar, in the canton of Zug, and is listed on the London and Johannesburg exchanges. It employs 140,000 people in more than thirty countries and operates across some sixty commodities. In 2025 it recorded revenue of 248 billion dollars, equivalent to 201 billion francs.

The company was founded in 1974 as the Marc Rich Group, named after the financier Marc Rich, who lived from 1934 to 2013. Rich had been indicted in the United States and received a presidential pardon from Bill Clinton on the final day of his term, in 2001.