Steel profits soar, strike pain spreads

RESTAURANT franchise group Famous Brands expected annual diluted headline earnings a share to increase between 19% and 21% (402c and 410c), it said. The results are expected to be published on May 19. HARMONY Gold swung back to a quarterly profit despite a fall in production as it benefited from a smaller foreign-exchange loss on a US denominated loan. Headline earnings a share were 12c after a loss of 21c previously. SOUTH Africa revised its 2013 maize output to 11.81 million tonnes from 11.69 million tonnes after reviewing deliveries to silos and the amount of the grain retained on farms, a government agency said. STEEL producer Arcelor-Mittal SA recorded a quarterly headline profit of R323-million from a R270-million loss a year ago‚ boosted by the weaker rand and the improved competitiveness of iron ore supply. OPERATIONS at the Richards Bay Coal Terminal are back to normal after a power outage that shut down South Africa’s largest coal export terminal for nine days in early February. SOUTH Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 25.2% of the labour force in the first quarter of the year, from 24.1% in the fourth quarter last year, said Stats SA in its Quarterly Labour Force Survey. THE seasonally adjusted HSBC purchasing managers’ index fell in April to a 10-month low of 49.4 from 50.2 in March as companies felt the pinch of mining-strikes-related disruptions to business activity. GROWTH in South Africa’s manufacturing output slowed to 0.7% year on year in volume terms in March after a revised 1.5% growth in February, said Stats SA. On a month-on-month basis, factory production fell 1.9%. DAIRY consumer products group Clover said it expected annual headline earnings a share to be more than 20% lower compared with the previous year‚ owing mainly to raw milk price increases and cost pressures. NET gold and foreign exchange reserves fell to $44.8-billion in April from $45-billion in March, data from the Reserve Bank showed. Gross reserves were little changed at $49.555billion at the end of April.