Eramet said on Wednesday that it had signed earlier this month a $400 million deal with commodities group Glencore to jointly market some 50,000 metric tons of lithium produced on its Argentina site over five years.

The French group said the deal was not yet included in its first-half results reported on Wednesday, Eramet chief financial officer Nicolas Carre told reporters.

The amount of $400 million will be pre-paid in 2023 and the volumes sold over five years at market price, he said.

Eramet said last month that Glencore was among parties to have expressed interest in helping finance its lithium production in Argentina.

Eramet posted a sharp drop in earnings for the first half of the year with adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) down 71% on the previous year at 339 million euros ($375.61 million).

The fall was mainly due to lower sale prices across its markets and logistical problems in Gabon, it said.

The group cut its target for full-year EBITDA to 900 million euros from 1.1 billion previously, due notably to a lower-than-expected rebound in the Chinese economy and a drop in the global construction sector.