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LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Glencore on Monday cut its output forecast for core commodities including zinc, but raised its marketing division’s full-year earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to between $2.6 billion and $2.8 billion, reflecting higher raw materials prices.
Its previous 2017 marketing, or trading, EBIT guidance was $2.4 billion to $2.7 billion, which was already an upward revision from $2.1 billion to $2.4 billion at the start of the year.
In its third-quarter production report on Monday, Glencore lowered its output guidance for copper, zinc and coal, citing operational difficulties, maintenance and end-of-mine-life declines, but it said full-year earnings would not suffer.
Analysts said it had been a weak quarter, but marketing conditions were favourable.
The share price rose 0.43 percent by 0912 GMT, slightly more than the broader market.
“Overall, we see today’s results as slightly negative, though the marketing EBIT guidance upgrade is a clear positive,” analysts at Bernstein said in a note.
They reiterated their “outperform” rating, saying Glencore’s commodity mix makes it well-placed for an increase in demand from electric vehicles.
For zinc output, Glencore cut its 2017 guidance to 1.1 million tonnes (+/- 15,000 tonnes) from 1.13 million tonnes (+/- 25,000 tonnes) seen in August.
Glencore’s zinc production has been in focus as a doubling in the market since the start of last year has raised questions over whether Glencore would bring back the production it shut in when the market was much weaker.
CEO Ivan Glasenberg has said he will only raise zinc output once he is confident any increase will not drag the market lower.
(Reporting by Barbara Lewis in London and Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely and Louise Heavens).
