Fin24 reports that Kumba Iron Ore was forced to slow its production during the last quarter of 2023 to reduce a growing stockpile prompted by railway woes.
The Anglo American subsidiary, which employed about 11,000 people in 2022 including contractors, also announced on Tuesday that it would look to cut up to 490 jobs. It will moreover review some 160 supplying companies with the possibility that some of their services will be reduced or terminated. "During 2023, we already streamlined our office-based roles and given the required change to our production footprint in the medium term, we do also need to reconfigure the size of our workforce," CEO Mpumi Zikalala indicated. To match the current low railway capacity, Kumba has decided to keep its production at 35 million tonnes to 37 million tonnes over the next three years – on average a 12% cut. The restructuring and other initiatives would help reduce costs by up to R3 billion in the current financial year, said Zikalala. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Tuesday said it was "highly perturbed and disappointed" by the announcement, accusing the miner of prioritizing profits over mineworkers and their families. It also expressed concern that the motivation was to replace labour intensive operations with mechanized ones. But it added it would approach retrenchment talks in good faith as it looks to save jobs. Within the Anglo stable, SA-focused Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has also announced job cuts, while the group has also indicated that it is contemplating production cuts at De Beers.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sikonathi Mantshantsha at Fin24
- Read too, Rail crisis forces Kumba Iron Ore to cut more jobs, at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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