Mining giant Grupo Mexico's profit jump on copper prices, production

By Aida Pelaez-Fernandez

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mining and transport conglomerate Grupo Mexico on Tuesday reported a 17.55% increase in its net profit during the third quarter, boosted by copper prices and higher production levels.

The company's net profit came in at $820.1 million, below expectations of analysts polled by LSEG that saw it at $935.65 million.

Grupo Mexico, controlled by billionaire German Larrea, is one of the world's largest copper producers with mines in Peru, the United States, Spain and its home base of Mexico, where it also operates major freight railroads.

Grupo Mexico also slightly upgraded its copper production expectations for 2024 to 1.09 million metric tons, slightly up from its 1.08 million metric tons outlook posted back in July.

Revenue for the major global copper producer, which also operates sprawling freight railroads in Mexico, rose 13.13% to total $4.13 billion in the quarter.

The company's consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached $2.17 billion, up 22% compared with the same period last year.

Meanwhile, copper production reached 280,897 metric tons over the third quarter, up 10.6% from the same period in 2023, and sales in the mining division rose 17.8% from the year earlier.

The company reported that copper prices also boosted its results, as those increased almost 8% throughout the year.

On the other hand, the transport unit saw a 1.9% sales drop compared to the year-earlier period, a performance dragged down by higher selling costs.

(Reporting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle and Aurora Ellis)