Glencore cuts down on production of coal, copper and nickel

Over the course of 2015, the Glencore commodity-trading and mining company reduced its copper production by 3% compared with the previous year to 1.50 million tonnes.
 
Coal production also fell over the same period, in this case by 10%, to 131.5 million tonnes. The reason for this was the lower price it was fetching on the international market and the closure of its Optimum Coal plant in South Africa. As to nickel production, this was also down by 5%.
 
On the other hand, production of zinc was up by 4% on the previous year to 1.44 million tonnes, not least as a result of its mining operations in Australia. However, here, too, Glencore said it wanted to reduce levels of production, and this was indeed done towards the end of 2015, with production reduced by one fifth in the final quarter of the year.
 
As for oil production, this was up by 44% to 10.6 million barrels.
 
The company also announced it was taking measures to reduce the level of its debt to between $18-19 billion by the end of this year.
 
As for its current level of liquidity, this was estimated to be around $14 billion.