Star 2023-08-24

Statistics South Africa says that inflation was well below the SARS’ upper limit CONSUMER prices in South Africa continued to cool on lower fuel and food prices, retreating to a two-year low of 4.7% in July from 5.4% in June and came in lower than expected. However, the drop might be temporary, analysts yesterday warned. Headline inflation was well below the upper limit of the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) monetary policy target range of between 3% to 6% and came in below the Bloomberg market consensus of 4.9% year-on-year. Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday said the consumer price inflation (CPI) increased, on average, by 0.9% between June 2023 and July 2023 – up from the monthly rise of 0.2% recorded in both May and June. StatsSA chief director…

FOR SASOL, an initial and major cost of its strategy to decarbonise was the more than R35 billion impairment on its coal-to-liquid fuels operations in the year to June 30. Chief financial officer Hanré Rossouw said the decision behind the impairment and resultant impact on group profitability, was their commitment, planning and changes in production, with associated reductions in output, that would be required to meet the target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 and to comply with the requirements of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act. Sasol’s energy reduction roadmap (ERR) involves the turning down of boilers, implementing energy efficiency projects, reducing coal usage and integrating 1 200MW of renewable energy into its operations by 2030. With no significant additional gas to restore…

SOUTH Africa continues to be a bene- factor of China’s largesse as the second- largest economy in the world has agreed to assist South Africa to improve its ageing coal-fired electricity generation units and expand its transmission lines. Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa signed a joint memorandum of co-operation with eight Chinese entities yesterday as part of the country’s continued efforts to strengthen partnerships to advance energy security and energy transition. The signing took place on the sidelines of the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. Eskom’s power generation from fossil fuels releases pollutant emissions that include sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, and particulate matter. The requirements of the Minimum Emission Standards mean that Eskom has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and that means burning less coal, which could lead…

Leslie Maasdorp, the New Development Bank (NDB) vice-president and chief financial officer told Business Report on the sidelines of the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg that the bank was looking at issuing a further R500 million bond this year, but the size and tenor would depend on market conditions in September and October. “We have an annual funding plan and this year we are looking at issuing $6 billion (R113bn) in total, a quarter of which will be in yuan. 2022 was a tough year and we are no longer lending to Russia due to the sanctions, with which we are fully compliant. We issued $1.25 billion in US dollars in April and the equivalent of $1.3 billion in yuan, so we still need to issue more bonds to meet…

SHARES in DRDGold, described by chief finance officer Riaan Davel as one of the best performing stocks on the JSE, inched up by 5% yesterday after the company raised earnings and declared a dividend for the full year to end June in spite of lower production. DRDGold had mixed fortunes over the year under review, with stronger performance in the second half year at some of its operations. However, the company, whose stock has performed 71.7% stronger on the JSE in the year to date, was propped up by stronger rand gold prices, higher recoveries at some operations and firmer investment into its production processes. Yesterday, after the release of its full year financials to end June, DRDGold shares closed 8.64% stronger at R19.50 on the JSE. Davel said the…

GUIDED by robust gold production that came in largely in line with guidance and mixed with stronger recovery grades, South African gold producer Harmony Gold said yesterday it was anticipating revenues and earnings per share to be significantly higher for the year ending June 2023. Earnings per share in the company are expected to lift from a loss per share of 172 cents in 2022 to between 763c and 798c for the period under review. Headline earnings per share are expected to also be firmer by between 50% and 70% at between 747c and 850c. Peter Steenkamp, the CEO for Harmony, said in a trading update yesterday that the period under review saw Harmony meet “the upper end of our production guidance” of 1.4 to 1.5 million ounces. This…