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(Bloomberg) — Glencore Plc said its trading team made a first-half profit of about $3.3 billion, putting it on course for its best ever year and underlining how commodity traders are cashing in after the Iran war sent energy prices soaring.
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Based on its first-half performance, the company is already within touching distance of the the top end of its annual earnings goal, which is set at $3.5 billion.
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The trading business made $2.9 billion last year. At its current rate, it’s on course to beat its record haul of $6.4 billion in 2022. Still, the company gave no updated guidance on its full-year performance.
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Commodity-trading houses are reaping big profits as the conflict in the Middle East creates dislocations across energy markets. At the same time, metal prices have been buoyed by everything from the artificial-intelligence boom to trade tariffs.
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Earlier this year, Glencore said it was comfortably ahead of its target for the year, but the scale of those trading profits became clear in an update from the company on Wednesday.
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Glencore, which is a major trader in both metals and energy, didn’t break down where its profits had come from, but will give more details at its first-half results next week.
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The Iran war upended global energy markets when it effectively closed the vital Strait of Hormuz at the end of February, shutting vast quantities of crude and products inside the Persian Gulf. Attacks on smelters in the region have also rocked the aluminum market.
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Buyers had to stump up for replacement barrels from elsewhere, particularly the US, creating a raft of opportunities for traders to cash in. The squeeze on petroleum products has also been exacerbated in recent months by waves of Ukrainian attacks on fuel plants in Russia, driving refining margins to records.
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Traders have also been making bumper profits as metals such as copper and aluminum climb toward record highs and tariffs and trade policies create arbitrage opportunities.
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