Glencore turns bigger copper, zinc price bull: Nickel not so much – by Frik Els (Mining.com – August 10, 2017)

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Miner and commodities trader Glencore (LON:GLEN) raised its revenue and profit outlook for the year on Thursday with the Swiss company citing the fast-growing electric vehicle market as a key driver.

“Most automotive players are now accelerating investment in/adoption of electric vehicle technologies, reflecting, in part, increasingly aggressive Government mandates around emission targets.

Growth in electric vehicle/energy storage systems requires changes in material flows, including the installation, rebuild and replacement of supporting infrastructure. Based on current and emerging technologies, these changes should benefit enabling commodities such as copper, cobalt and nickel,” Glencore said in a statement accompanying its half-year results.

Vehicles with conventional internal combustion engines typically contain about 20 kilograms of copper. For electric vehicles the copper load is up to 80 kilograms (and increased quantities of cobalt, nickel, manganese). Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Glencore told investors at an industry meeting in Barcelona in May “the electric vehicle revolution is happening and its impact is likely to be felt faster than expected.”

Glencore is the world’s number four copper producer, top three zinc supplier and has a tight grip on cobalt mining. Tts clout on base metals markets is only amplified by its trading arm.  During the first six months of 2017 Glencore’s metals and minerals division recorded revenues of $37.4 billion, up 20% compared to the same period last year. The company’s marketing activities make up just shy of two-thirds of total revenues.

Here are some highlights from Glencore’s outlook for its base metals business:

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