Kumba’s iron ore output and exports decline in Q1

Largest South African iron ore producer Kumba Iron Ore Company (KIO), a subsidiary of Anglo American Plc, has announced that in the first quarter of the current year it recorded a decline in both output and export of iron ore.
 
In the first three months of this year, Kumba Iron Ore Co. produced 9.9 million mt of iron ore, compared to 12.3 million mt in the same period of last year. Due to rainstorms, in the given period production of iron ore decreased by 22 percent year on year to 8.5 million mt at its Sishen mine, with a year-on-year decrease of 49 percent in its Thabazimbi mine to 200,000 mt.
 
Anglo American Plc expects that Kumba's iron ore production in 2011 will be at the same levels as last year.
 
On the export side, Kumba exported 10.38 million mt of iron ore in the first quarter of the current year, down five percent compared to the corresponding period of 2010.