Anglo American reports heavy losses, sheds 6,000 staff

LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) – Global (Shenzhen: 300465.SZ – news) mining company Anglo-American said on Friday it will shed thousands of job sins the next couple of years and might put up more assets for sale as it battles an accelerating slump in metals prices that has dragged its shares down to a 13-year low. Larger rivals Rio Tinto and Glencore have also cut hundreds of jobs this year.

Falling prices were seen across most of its products, with the realized price of iron ore down 41%, platinum down 19%, copper 18% and coal down 15%.

Chief executive Mark Cutifani said: “I expect the current period of volatile markets and economic uncertainty, fuelled in part by pockets of geopolitical tension, to continue”.

It said that in the longer term, the company, which employs about 151,000 staff members’ word wide, aims to reduce its work force by about a third.

None of the big diversified miners have suffered as much as Anglo. Rough diamond sales at the company’s De Beers unit fell 21 per cent to $US3 billion, despite a 7 per cent increase in prices, as sales volumes slid 27 per cent. De Beers lowered its 2015 production guidance to 29 million carats from 31 million.

Anglo is not the only one to feel the pinch.

“This is a bloodbath of job losses in the mining industry”.

With the cost savings, the company is on track to deliver its long-term net debt target of $10bn to $12bn, Cutifani added.

Platinum recovered from the strikes in South Africa last year to past a profit of US$272mln.

“This will be another tough few months, but it is the right call to accelerate our plans now to create the Anglo American that we all want to see – effective, efficient and robust”.

For the six months ended in June, the company reported a net loss of $3.02bn, compared to a $1.46bn profit during the same period in 2014.

A one-time charge of $US3.5 billion, including $US2.9 billion from a write-down in the value of Anglo American’s huge Minas-Rio iron ore project in Brazil, weighed on its results.