die bekannten Probleme mit dem starken Rand hier zusammengefaßt.
Außerdem Hinweise zu "Monopolstrukturen" bei Wasserversorgern
und Iscor-Stahl.
gogh
Artikel aus MINEWEB vom 18.06.2004
South African gold production tumbles
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By: Gareth Tredway
Posted: '18-JUN-04 08:00' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2004
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South Africa’s bloodied gold industry showed the extent of its decline, as production numbers for the first quarter hit lows last seen almost a decade ago.
Gold production decreased by 8.3 percent to 84,616.5 kilograms in the first quarter compared to 92,314.6 kilograms produced in the same quarter last year. On an annualised basis, that would leave South Africa producing only 338 tonnes of gold this year, or only 13 percent of last year’s global production. That’s a long way down from the 375.8 tonnes produced last year and further still from the 425 tonnes of gold mined in 1999.
As was the case last year, South African mining houses attempted to counteract the weak rand gold price by mining at higher average grades. But the Chamber of Mines, the industry’s representative body, says these efforts failed to boost production to levels previously achieved.
“Because of the holidays in December, this quarter is always lower than the others. But this dip is the lowest we’ve seen in quite some time, I think since ’95,” said Roger Baxter, an economist at the South African Chamber of Mines.
Baxter says the “big issues” affecting the industry are the strength of the rand - which is forcing costs higher and lowering revenues - and the restrictions placed on local producers by suppliers. “We believe the current value of the currency does not reflect the true cost and fundamental structure of the economy,” said Baxter.
Despite a dollar gold price hovering around $400/oz for most of the quarter, a strong rand has held its ground below R7 to the dollar. The Rand price of gold fell a further 5.9 percent to R88 873 per kilogram during the quarter. It has since fallen to around R80,000/kg, rendering a third of the countries gold mines unprofitable. That number climbs if capital expenditure is taken into account.
At such low profits these companies have turned to slashing costs as a means to increase margins. Baxter says in South Africa the process is more difficult as the monopolistic control by industry suppliers prohibits cost control. “It is not like in the US or Canada where they have a lot of leeway with their suppliers,” said Baxter.
The average increase in total production costs excluding capital expenditure rose by 18 percent year-on-year with above inflation increase in water costs and steel prices singled out. Durban Roodepoort Deep and Harmony, two local gold producers have, over the past few months, publicly shown their unhappiness towards Iscor’s steel price model