BusinessLive reports that Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) declared a chunky R11 per share interim dividend for the six months to end-June as its profit trebled due to higher prices, but the company warned unions not to get too excited as wage talks start.
The price of the basket of platinum group metals (PGMs) Amplats produced during the six months was up 33% to R38,305/oz from R28,700/oz, while post-tax profit rocketed to R7.36bn from R2.3bn. Amplats will now table its counteroffer to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) as wage talks with the self-proclaimed militant union start in earnest. Amplats CEO Chris Griffith said the effective 45% increase that Amcu had tabled in recent weeks would be deeply damaging and could result in the closure of Amandelbult and the loss of thousands of jobs. He warned against embedding unsustainable increases in the company’s labour costs, cautioning that while the prices of PGMs had increased, largely due to palladium and rhodium, this was no time to “get carried away”. Amplats would seek an inflation-related wage increase, he indicated. Stats SA reported that annual consumer inflation in May was 4.5%.
- Read the full original of Allan Seccombe’s report on the above at BusinessLive
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