【Ferro-alloys.com】:The world’s biggest miners have spent the past two weeks reporting lower profits, shrinking dividends and a worsening outlook as the year rolls on. Next up: Glencore Plc looks set to buck the trend.

While commodities like iron ore and copper have retreated as gloom settles over the global economy, Glencore is enjoying two key advantages over its mining rivals — a powerful trading business that thrives in volatile markets, and a suite of coal mines now churning out previously unimaginable earnings thanks to the global energy crunch.

As a result, analysts are forecasting record profits and returns when Glencore reports on Thursday, with first-half earnings seen more than doubling from a year ago.

It’s a sharp reversal from previous years. The company had lagged its biggest rivals, largely because it doesn’t mine any iron ore, a commodity that helped supercharge earnings for mega miners BHP Group and Rio Tinto Group. But China’s Covid controls have sapped demand for the steelmaking ingredient as investor worries about a global recession weigh on commodity prices more broadly.

Rio Tinto last week reported a sharp decline in first-half profit and cut its dividend in half, while Anglo American Plc announced lower earnings and shareholder returns. Other miners from Vale SA to Lundin Mining Corp. also disappointed.Sponsored ContentWhy People, Not Compliance, Will Set the Course for the Future of ESG and Responsible BusinessBusiness Reporter

For now, the companies are still making good money, if not at last year’s record levels. It was Anglo’s second-best first half on record, while Rio paid its second-biggest interim dividend. But the increasingly uncertain outlook and weakening prices have cast a shadow over the underlying numbers, particularly as relentlessly rising costs across the industry add to profit-margin pressures.

• [Editor:Alakay]