LONDON, March 12, 2026, 13:47 GMT
Glencore shares climbed in London on Thursday, bucking weakness across the wider UK market. By 1320 GMT, the stock was sitting at 528.10 pence, up 4.70 pence for the session. Reuters market data put the FTSE 100 down 0.51%. 1
This shift has real weight right now—miners were pretty much the last FTSE 350 sector standing as oil spiked and those old inflation worries crept back in. “A prolonged disruption pushes up energy prices, which will stoke inflation and potentially rates,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell. Traders have swung back to betting on about a 54% chance the Bank of England goes for a quarter-point hike by December. 2
That puts Glencore right in the spotlight. The company wears both hats—miner and commodity trader—running operations across coal, metals, and oil marketing. It released its 2025 annual report on March 10, and plans to stage its annual meeting May 28. 3
Glencore, reporting Feb. 18, stuck with a $2 billion payout to shareholders, despite adjusted EBITDA slipping 6% to $13.51 billion in 2025. CEO Gary Nagle pointed to “underlying momentum in H2,” citing improved metals prices and a pickup in copper volumes. Those factors drove a 49% jump in core profit for the second half. 4
Investors are still picking through the fallout of Rio Tinto’s collapsed negotiations with Glencore. Last month, Reuters flagged that Rio was likely to step up disposals as it seeks to boost its copper exposure. Aberdeen’s Iain Pyle thinks asset sales could leave the business more tightly focused on copper and trading. Glencore, for its part, is targeting copper output of 1.6 million metric tons by 2035, up from 852,000 tons expected in 2025. 5
The copper thread runs beyond Glencore. Last month, Reuters’ Clyde Russell pointed out copper’s growing role in profits at both BHP and Rio Tinto. That goes some way to showing why Glencore’s copper assets remain central to the company’s value proposition—even after its discussions with Rio Tinto fell apart. 6
The rally isn’t without its snags. Over in Australia, Glencore’s Townsville copper refinery faces a threatened strike this Friday if negotiations break down. Even with a A$600 million lifeline from the government, Glencore says the plant will keep bleeding red ink. Down in South Africa, Samancor and Glencore’s joint venture with Merafe are still going ahead with job cuts in the face of a more than 50% cut in power prices, a stark reminder of the pressure on ferrochrome—the steelmaking alloy. 7
Commodity shocks don’t always push in one direction. George Cheveley at Ninety One points out that while drawn-out conflict could mean tighter metal supplies, it might just as easily sap demand—a 5% drop in aluminium use alone could blunt the supply impact, he said. That’s the story with Glencore: rising raw-material prices may fatten earnings, but a sharp demand pullback could sour sentiment just as fast. 8
