Glencore billionaires making a comeback

published 17 November 2011

The commodities trading and mining behemoth Glencore has seen production of copper rise 40% and gold (and equivalents) rocket 45% in the three months to the end of September.

Glencore is the largest diversified commodities company in the world owning mining and extraction assets across six continents. It also has a marketing arm which finds buyers for the enormous amount of raw materials it produces and, if Glencore can't complete the order, then the marketing division will tap other producers to execute the trade.

The scale of its operation and its influence over world commodity demand and supply makes Glencore and huge player in the world economy. In May this year Glencore listed publically on the London Stock Exchange,shooting straight into the FTSE 100 and famously making a number of its senior executives, including chief executive Ivan Glasenberg, over-night billionaires.

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Since the IPO however Glencore has fallen 23% in value over concerns that Europe's debt crisis will dampen demand for commodities.

Despite the boost in copper and gold, there were falls in production of nickel (-1.4%) and cobalt (-15.9%).

Today's release did not contain profit numbers but in a brief statement accompanying the update Glencore said "trading remained solid" at its crucial marketing operation. It added: "Despite the financial market uncertainty and some weather and equipment-driven disruptions, Glencore's overall healthy operational and financial performance has continued through Q3 2011."

At 8.27am in London the stock had risen 1.7% to 412p