Glencore said on Thursday that its attributable ferrochrome production rose 29% to 125 thousand tonnes in the third quarter, as it restarted smelters in South Africa.
The company reported production for the quarter in its third-quarter report, published on 29 October 2026. Boshoek restarted in September and Wonderkop in October, following Lion, which began a phased restart in March 2026. Glencore expects ramp-up to run through the fourth quarter.
Most smelting capacity sat idle for much of 2026, and the first nine months show it: ferrochrome output, at 235 thousand tonnes, was 46% below the 436 thousand tonnes of the same period of 2025. Chrome ore production of 906 thousand tonnes in the quarter was 11% above the second quarter, but the nine-month total of 2,553 thousand tonnes was 7% lower than a year earlier. The figures are Glencore’s 79.5% share of the Glencore-Merafe Chrome Venture.
Chief executive Gary Nagle said the group “continued the progressive restart” of its smelters. Glencore linked the Boshoek and Wonderkop restarts to new power price deals signed with Eskom in June 2026.
The rest of the report
Across the group, own-sourced copper output was 201.6 thousand tonnes in the quarter, 2% above the second quarter. For the nine months it was 598.6 thousand tonnes, 3% above the same period of 2025, or 12% higher after adjusting for the closed Mount Isa copper mine and the Kidd mine, which Glencore sold on 1 June 2026.
Source: Glencore Third Quarter 2026 Production Report, 29 October 2026. Chart: Rand Desk
Cobalt fell 20% on the quarter to 3.5 thousand tonnes. For the nine months it was 13.7 thousand tonnes, 52% lower than a year earlier, which Glencore blamed on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s cobalt export quota regime.
Energy coal rose 8% on the quarter to 26.5 million tonnes, and steelmaking coal rose 14% to 8.0 million tonnes. Glencore’s South African thermal coal operations produced 13.1 million tonnes in the first nine months, of which 9.9 million tonnes was for export and 3.2 million tonnes for the domestic market. Export output was 8% above the same period of 2025.
Glencore also funds the Prieska copper and zinc project in the Northern Cape, which is separate from these figures. Zinc fell 4% on the quarter to 181.6 thousand tonnes and gold fell 6% to 94 thousand ounces.
Guidance
Glencore left its 2026 production guidance unchanged. Zinc and energy coal should land near the top of their ranges, copper and steelmaking coal near the bottom, and nickel in the middle. The copper range is 810 to 870 thousand tonnes, against 851.6 thousand produced in 2025.
Glencore also said it expects 2026 full-year Marketing Adjusted EBIT to exceed US$5 billion, following its guidance update on 2 October. It expects copper and steelmaking coal output to pick up in the fourth quarter.
