Deals
Glencore Doubles Down on Coal as Mining Rivals Seek to Exit
- Coal producers have faced investor pressure to sell assets
- Global coal use fell most on record in 2015, according to BP
Glencore has been caught up in a China-led slowdown that’s hit prices for commodities from oil to copper to coal.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Glencore Plc is doubling down on coal, even as rivals BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group move away from the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel.
The company, run by former coal trader Ivan Glasenberg, made a surprise eleventh-hour $3.5 billion bid for a huge patch of thermal coal-rich ground on Australia’s east coast controlled by Rio Tinto Group and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. Rio’s board will meet later this week to consider the proposal, which trumps an agreement made with a unit of China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Co., according to a person familiar with the situation.