3rd Dec 2008 07:00
3 December 2008
Number 43/08
SAMANCOR MANGANESE PRODUCTION REDUCTION
BHP Billiton today announced that it is temporarily cutting manganese production at its 60 per cent owned Samancor (Pty) Ltd operation due to weak market conditions. The cuts are expected to reduce ore production by 21 per cent and alloy production by 23 per cent for FY2009.
The reduction in manganese ore output is expected to be balanced between GEMCO (Australia) and Hotazel (South Africa). Resources at both these operations will shift to development and re-building product inventories, which are severely depleted. The reductions are expected to reduce ore production by 1.5 million tonnes in FY2009. Samancor's current total output capacity is 7.0 million tonnes of ore per annum.
In relation to alloy, furnace rebuilds will be brought forward at TEMCO (Australia) and Metalloys (South Africa). In addition, certain of these furnaces are not expected to restart until market conditions improve. We expect to reduce alloy production by 170,000 tonnes in FY2009, from a current output capacity of 725,000 tonnes per year.
BHP Billiton Chief Executive, Ferrous and Coal, Marcus Randolph, said: "We said on 22 November that global market conditions were proving challenging for the steel industry and its raw materials providers. Manganese ore and alloy are entirely dependent on the carbon steel industry and are therefore directly impacted by the current weak steel markets.
"We will continue to monitor the situation and when we see a recovery, given we are bringing forward essential major maintenance projects, we expect to be well placed to restart our full production alloy capacity. In ore, the development activities and rebuilding of depleted stocks will also allow us to react quickly to any recovery in the market."
BHP Billiton's 40 per cent partner in Samancor is Anglo American Corporation.
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Australia Samantha Evans, Media Relations Tel: +61 3 9609 2898 Mobile: +61 400 693 915 email: [email protected] |
United Kingdom & South Africa Andre Liebenberg, Investor Relations Tel: +44 20 7802 4131 Mobile: +44 7920 236 974 email: [email protected]
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Peter Ogden, Media Relations Tel: +61 3 9609 2812 Mobile: +61 428 599 190 Email: [email protected] |
Illtud Harri, Media Relations Tel: +44 20 7802 4195 Mobile: +44 7920 237 246 email: [email protected] |
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Leng Lau, Investor Relations Tel: +61 3 9609 4202 Mobile: +61 403 533 706 email: [email protected] |
United States Scott Espenshade, Investor Relations Tel: +1 713 599 6431 Mobile: +1 713 208 8565 email: [email protected]
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Ruban Yogarajah, Media Relations Tel: US +1 713 966 2907 or UK +44 20 7802 4033Mobile: UK +44 7827 082 022 email: [email protected] |
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BHP Billiton Limited ABN 49 004 028 077 Registered in Australia Registered Office: 180 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Telephone +61 1300 554 757 Facsimile +61 3 9609 3015 |
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