By: Ecofin Agency

The Export-Import Bank of Korea will provide a $1 billion loan to Glencore International AG, a unit of Swiss commodities group Glencore. In return, the commodities trader and producer has committed to supplying copper to South Korean companies for the duration of the financing, Bloomberg reported on Monday, Aug. 17.

Seoul said the deal was aimed at securing a stable copper supply for South Korea's advanced industries, which depend heavily on imported raw materials.  The metal is used in power grids, renewable energy equipment and data centers, among other applications.

The state-owned bank did not disclose how much copper would be supplied or where it would come from. The loan is not earmarked for a specific project and will instead support Glencore’s general working capital needs. Korea Eximbank said, however, that the group's global network of mines and trading partners, including in Chile and Peru, could provide alternative supplies in the event of production disruptions.

African assets drive Glencore's copper growth

The announcement comes as Glencore's copper production is rising this year, driven in part by its African assets. In the first half of 2026, the group produced 397,000 metric tons of copper from its own assets, up 15% from a year earlier. Its African operations produced 138,400 tons, an increase of 66%, adding about 55,000 tons compared with the same period a year earlier.

The increase was mainly due to higher production volumes and improved grades at the group's African copper operations, which are concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Export quotas imposed by Kinshasa on cobalt also led Glencore to shift production toward copper.

Its cobalt production fell 46% in the first half to 10,200 tons. In a report published in July, the group maintained its 2026 copper production target of between 810,000 and 870,000 tons.

Glencore's access to copper is not limited to output from its own mines. In February, the company agreed to provide Orion Minerals with a $250 million prepayment facility for the Prieska copper-zinc project in South Africa. Under the agreement, Glencore will receive a share of the project's future concentrate production.

There is no indication, however, that the copper supplied to South Korean companies will come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa or another African asset. Until more details emerge, the main question for African countries is whether growing competition among major industrial powers to secure copper supplies will translate into more investment in mines, infrastructure or local processing.