London, April 30, 2026, 12:05 BST
Glencore plc said first-quarter copper output rose 19% and its trading arm was on course to beat the top end of its long-term profit target, giving the London-listed miner a lift as commodity markets stay volatile. The company produced 199,600 metric tons of copper in the quarter, up from 167,900 tons a year earlier.
The update matters now because copper has become the metal investors are watching most closely in mining: it is used in power grids, electric vehicles and charging systems, while Middle East-driven energy disruption is also creating price swings that can benefit big commodity traders. BlackRock portfolio manager Evy Hambro told Reuters that capital is moving into hard assets, calling it the “early stages of a commodity supercycle.” Reuters
Glencore said the copper gain came mainly from better ore grades, meaning higher metal concentration in mined rock, at its African copper operations and stronger throughput and grades at Antamina in Peru. CEO Gary Nagle said first-quarter production was “largely in line with our expectations,” and the company kept its 2026 production guidance unchanged, including copper at 810,000 to 870,000 tonnes. Glencore
The bigger swing came from marketing, Glencore’s commodities trading business. Nagle said extrapolating first-quarter performance would put full-year adjusted EBIT — operating profit before interest and tax — “comfortably exceeding” the top end of the company’s $2.3 billion to $3.5 billion long-term range. Glencore
Shares added 2% in London morning trade after the update, helping the FTSE 100 rise 0.9% to 10,307.19 points by 0942 GMT. Oil prices also jumped to more than $122 a barrel on concerns that the U.S.-Iran war could deepen Middle East supply disruption.
But the production print was not clean. Cobalt output fell 39% to 5,800 tonnes as Glencore prioritised copper at its Democratic Republic of Congo assets under export quota restrictions; zinc, lead, nickel, gold, steelmaking coal and energy coal also declined from a year earlier.
The DRC quota system is set to apply to cobalt exports until at least the end of 2027, and Glencore said cobalt produced above quotas at KCC and Mutanda would be stored in-country and sold as conditions allow. The other risk sits in costs: Nagle flagged higher diesel and sulphuric acid consumption, plus a weaker dollar, though he said stronger commodity prices should more than offset those pressures for now.
The competitive backdrop is tight. Anglo American said this week its first-quarter copper production rose 1% to 170,400 tonnes, while Rio Tinto reported 229,000 tonnes of mined copper last week and BHP said copper output slipped 7% in its March quarter but still expected annual production in the upper half of guidance.
For Glencore, the near-term story is not just more copper. It is whether the company can turn higher prices and trading dislocations into cash while keeping a lid on costs, quotas and weaker volumes elsewhere.
