UK-based mining giant AngloAmerican plc's South Africa-based subsidiary Kumba Iron Ore Limited (Kumba) has announced that a strike by the majority union of the South African transportation company Transnet has ended and that, even though a minority union is still out on strike, Transnet is confident that rail operations will normalize during this week.
The company said that it was successful in mitigating the impact of the strike action upon Kumba's operations, to the extent that Kumba was able to continue to rail significant ore volumes down the Iron Ore Export Channel and load at Saldanha Port. "As at 08:00 on Monday, 24 May, Kumba had railed 70 percent, and loaded 78 percent, of its contractual volumes for the period of the strike. As at May 24, stock levels at Saldanha Port were 1.55 million mt, compared with 1.7 million mt when the strike started on May 10," Kumba said
Kumba is confident that the backlog in delivery and loading will be made up in due course and that the strike should have no long-term effect on the company's exports.