JSE-listed Kumba Iron Ore’s sales for the six months ended June 30, increased by 1% to 21.3-million tonnes, while export sales increased by 2% to 19.9-million tonnes, ultimately reflecting an improvement in rail performance which allowed the miner to meet sustained demand.
During the second quarter of the year, however, shipments had been hampered by severe weather disruptions and repairs to a stacker reclaimer at the Saldanha port, resulting in export sales decreasing by 4% to 9.8-million tonnes, relative to the 10.1-million tonnes of sales in the prior quarter.
Operationally, production decreased by 11% year-on-year to 20.1-million tonnes for the six-months to June 30, but good progress had been achieved in the second quarter with production having increased by 11% quarter-on-quarter to 10.54-million tonnes.
This, Kumba said on Thursday, was largely driven by a 13% quarter-on-quarter improvement in Sishen Iron Ore’s production to 7.31-million tonnes.
At Kolomela, production decreased by 11% quarter-on-quarter to 3.23-million tonnes, owing to extended maintenance of the dense media separation plant.
Kumba further noted that it had continued to focus on its value-over-volume strategy in line with the strong demand for high-quality iron-ore, adding that the average lump to fine ratio was maintained at 68:32 and the average iron quality of the product portfolio was stable at 64.3% iron.
These factors contributed to the higher average realised free-on-board export iron-ore price of $108/t.
Moreover, Kumba said it had delivered a solid performance from its mining activities and that, although waste stripping at Sishen had decreased, as planned, by 4% to 82.8-million tonnes, the primary mining equipment performed well during the second quarter with increased levels of availability.
Full-year waste stripping guidance currently remains unchanged at between 170-million and 180-million tonnes.
Given the unscheduled plant maintenance in the first half of the year, production guidance for the full-year has been revised downward to between 42-million and 43-million tonnes, compared with the previous guidance of between 43-million and 44-million tonnes.
The full-year sales guidance is unchanged at between 43-million and 44-million tonnes, as sales volumes will be supplemented from finished stock, which is at a level of 4.5-million tonnes.