(Reuters) – South Africa’s Anglo American Platinum on Thursday revised down its forecast for refined production in 2022 as it expects a two-month delay in completing its Polokwane smelter rebuild.
Amplats, the world’s number one producer of platinum group metals (PGM), said it expected refined output to be 3.7 million to 3.9 million PGM ounces, down from the previous guidance of 4.0 million to 4.4 million PGM ounces.
The company said the rebuild of its Polokwane smelter, for the first time in 12 years, would be delayed after internal quality checks had detected sub-standard materials that had been delivered for use in the project.
“Delivery of replacement materials will result in a two-month delay to the completion of the project. As a result, there will be a build-up in work-in-progress inventory in 2022 and a short-term timing impact to refined PGM production,” Amplats said in a statement.
Amplats expects its unit costs to remain between 14,000 rand ($809.47) and 15,000 rand per PGM ounce, with sales being in the 3.7 – 3.9 million PGM ounce range, in line with refined production.
In July, Amplats reported a 43% fall in half-year profit, due to weaker PGM prices and lower volumes compared to record sales a year ago when the global economy started to emerge from COVID-19 lockdowns.
($1 = 17.2952 rand)
(Reporting by Nelson Banya; Editing by Edmund Blair and Tomasz Janowski)
