Kumba Iron Ore, a unit of global miner Anglo American, reported a rise in first-half headline earnings per share (EPS), and said it remains committed to raising production by 10% this year.
South Africa’s Kumba, the continent’s biggest producer of the steel-making ingredient, said on Thursday diluted headline earnings per share rose to 1 069 cents for the six-month period to end-June, from 890 cents the previous year.
Kumba said earlier this month it expected headline earnings per share for the period of between 1 050 cents and 1 085 cents.
Headline EPS is the main profit gauge in South Africa and strips out certain one-off, financial and non-trading items.
Kumba said it remained confident to be able to redirect some of the lost sales from Europe to China and expects to see some improvement in demand from other Asian markets.
”Whilst no recovery in the European iron-ore market is anticipated in 2009, the Japanese and Korean markets appear to be near the bottom of the cycle and a small improvement in demand is likely,” it said in a statement.
Kumba said domestic sales, dependent on off-take from ArcelorMittal’s South African unit, would be lower than in 2008. It also said visibility in demand for seaborne iron ore for the rest of the year was limited. — Reuters