Glencore sees "healthy" Q3 trading performance

LONDON (Reuters) - Commodities trader Glencore said its closely watched marketing operations performed "strongly" in the third quarter, against a more mixed picture for its key mines, with Congo power cuts dampening copper growth.

Glencore, in a trading update, said overall performance was "good" in the three months to the end of September, despite weaker commodity prices and tough global economic conditions it said would not improve any time soon.

"(The third quarter) saw a healthy improvement both year-on-year and sequentially," Glencore said of its marketing operations, which accounted for just over a third of profit last year, but which are seen as a bellwether, and are less easily forecast by the market.

"Glencore's outlook for the remainder of the year in marketing remains positive."

Glencore said its industrial performance was on track to meet longer-term targets - and broadly in line with market estimates - but its Katanga operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo was badly hit by power outages which cost the group 49 days of lost production over the first nine months of the year.

Copper production there was up 3 percent over the period, but over 9 percent over the third quarter.

Gold production at Glencore's Kazzinc operation, where it increased its stake last month, rose 18 percent, while coal production grew and oil from its Equatorial Guinea operation was ahead of schedule. Glencore's Alen field is on schedule and on budget for first production in the second half of 2013.

Glencore is in the throes of a $33 billion takeover of miner Xstrata . Shareholders are due to vote on the deal later this month.

(Reporting by Clara Ferreira-Marques; Editing by Sinead Cruise)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/glencore-sees-healthy-improvement-marketing-q3-072111990--finance.html

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