The company posted a net loss of $US676 million ($A919.3 million), a 239% drop on the $1.7 billion profit posted for the same period of 2014.

Net income before significant items (including impairments on oil assets) was $882 million, a 56% drop.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell 29% to $4.6 billion, while adjusted EBIT dropped 56% to $1.4 billion.

Marketing EBIT was down 27% to $1.2 billion, prompting a revision of full-year guidance to $2.5 billion from $2.7-3.7 billion.

Funds from operations dropped 29% to $3.5 billion due to the steep fall in commodity prices, particularly copper.

Net debt dropped 3% to $29.5 billion due to a 21% reduction in net capital expenditure.

“What we've done with these falling commodity prices, we're doing everything possible to reduce cost in the company,” Glasenberg said.

“And in the first half of this year, we reduced cost by being more efficient – efficiency at our operations, better purchasing methods, reduction of staff, reduction of offices around the world, et cetera.

“And we've managed to reduce costs by $400 million. And we'll continue pushing that during the second half, and we believe we will get an additional $400 million within 12 months.”

Capex guidance has been reduced to $6 billion from $6.5-6.8 billion, while 2016 guidance has been reduced to below $5 billion from $6.6 billion.

Glasenberg said Glencore continued to believe it was in the right commodities.

“If you look at the commodities we're in, there's no new big supply coming into the market, which is key,” he said.

“We've always said demand is getting very tricky to call right now with what we see going on in China, but what is important, the stuff that we know about, is what is happening on the supply side in all the various commodities and how are we positioned in those commodities.”

Glasenberg said copper supply was not coming on as expected.

“Whether we got oversupplied, undersupplied, all depends on demand in China, and that's the one that we're all struggling to read, what's going on in China – but one thing is for sure, in copper the supply is not happening as the way people envisaged,” he said.

In zinc, the company’s McArthur River expansion is coming online as the large Century and Lisheen mines are closing.

“We're going from 55c per pound down to 45c per pound in 2016, also making us the leading low-cost producer of zinc in the world,” Glasenberg said.

He described coal as the “difficult one”, but said Glencore’s costs in both coal and nickel would fall next year.

“If you look at our array of commodities, those ones we are lowest quartile, first quartile in our cost structure, the margins are still good there,” Glasenberg said.

“And even at current commodity prices, we still generate good free cashflow and we have good margins there going forward.

“So we believe we're in a nice position.”

Analysts from SP Angel said the results highlighted Glencore's exposure to copper.

"We are disappointed with these results and are concerned that if China does not move to stimulate domestic construction, infrastructure and other industrial activity that Glencore could also disappoint through the second half," analysts said.

Glencore shares slumped 9.7% overnight in London.