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PETRI REDELINGHUYS: I’m Petri Redelinghuys, standing in for Fifi Peters. We are actually chatting with the CEO of Anglo American Platinum, Natascha Viljoen. Natascha, good night and welcome and thanks to your time tonight.
NATASCHA VILJOEN: Good night, Petri.
PETRI REDELINGHUYS: Firstly, I’d wish to say ‘Wow!’ A R300 dividend for the entire yr –that’s actually, actually spectacular.
NATASCHA VILJOEN: Sure. I believe that’s actually on the again of a superb set of outcomes, and I believe, Petri, it’s most likely simply necessary for us to notice that it has been influenced by two main components.
The one is that I’m undecided whether or not a few of your listeners would possibly do not forget that in 2020 we had a breakdown on one in every of our furnaces that resulted in about one million ounces of steel locked up in stock and, because of the superb work that our processing crew has executed during the last 18 months, they not solely managed to rebuild that facility, run it very stably and reliably, and depleted most of that stock that we inbuilt 2020.
On prime of that we clearly see report costs. That softened a bit of in H2, however regardless of that we noticed report costs for the yr. So it’s a type of distinctive occasions the place manufacturing and worth come collectively, and we’ve managed to ship superb set of economic outcomes with a related payback to each our monetary shareholders and the broader South African economic system.
PETRI REDELINGHUYS: Sure. I used to be wanting by a few of these numbers; the contribution that you simply make to the South African economic system is huge. I believe there’s BEE procurement of round R28 billion, R14 billion paid in salaries and wages, capital funding of R14 billion, social funding, neighborhood growth spend in Covid-19 help to the tune of R2 billion, a contribution to the fiscus of each South Africa and Zimbabwe of round R35 billion spherical in taxes. That’s enormous.
It’s additionally very pleasing to see that there’s a really huge dividend – effectively, one other one I suppose – coming to shareholders.
I’ve bought a few questions for you which of them I assume could appear a bit of unfair. The primary is, going ahead into the subsequent monetary yr are you trying to improve manufacturing, proceed to ramp up manufacturing, or are you kind of completely happy to stabilise at this stage?
NATASCHA VILJOEN: Petri, we can be stabilising at pre-Covid ranges, simply contemplating a few of the areas we’ve mined out at Amandelbult and Kroondal particularly. You’ll’ve seen within the final yr we additionally introduced the sale of our agreements with our JV in Kroondal, ……7:45 Marikana. So we’ll see some discount in sure of our areas, however we’ll see a rise in areas like Unki and Mototolo, the place we accomplished the bottlenecking tasks within the final yr. So we’ll see offsets coming by from varied areas within the enterprise.
PETRI REDELINGHUYS: In order that kind of leads to a stabilisation of manufacturing, so that you could be ramping up in some areas.
NATASCHA VILJOEN: Proper.
PETRI REDELINGHUYS: Sibanye-Stillwater talked about that they’re considerably apprehensive that elevated manufacturing from the likes of Anglo American Platinum might doubtlessly harm costs out there going ahead. So is that this a fear that they needn’t have, or are you coming to eat their lunch?
NATASCHA VILJOEN: I believe if we have a look at our forecast for the metals, we’re forecasting a deficit out there for all three of our important metals going ahead for the subsequent three to 5 years. That deficit will nonetheless definitely help a superb stage of costs, so I’m not too involved that something will occur within the close to time period.
I believe the opposite facet that’s actually necessary for us as Anglo American Platinum is simply our capital self-discipline, and that capital self-discipline I believe performed itself out by this previous yr with returning cash to our shareholders as effectively. That capital self-discipline requires us to very fastidiously think about what the markets are going to do, and what the dangers within the markets are. Contemplating the uncertainty round how the transition of the drivetrain will happen, we have to be thoughtful and construct optionality in our enterprise to reply. I’d argue that our capital self-discipline will be certain that that we do think about that it’s in no person’s curiosity for us to oversupply, and it’s additionally in no person’s curiosity for the costs to be unsustainably excessive.
PETRI REDELINGHUYS: Truthful sufficient.
NATASCHA VILJOEN: I believe along with that, what I wish to add is, over and above being aware when it comes to capital self-discipline, we’re additionally taking possession of our future and actually growing the market. I believe Anglo American Platinum is doing a singular quantity of labor in investing again into markets and product growth. That can all then additionally assist to offset any danger of extra oversupply and a damaging affect on costs.
PETRI REDELINGHUYS: All proper. After which one final query – all we now have time for actually – with Ukraine and Russia on the point of who is aware of what, that’s round 20% of the availability of PGMs, if I’m not mistaken. How a lot of a possibility is that for you as Anglo American Platinum to perhaps fill a little bit of the availability which may go away the marketplace for a couple of months?
NATASCHA VILJOEN: Petri, it’s very troublesome to simply ramp up the availability in a really brief span of time. I believe the profit that we’ll see coming by isn’t most likely in costs. We’ve seen the volatility rise because the digital geopolitics are growing. Simply contemplating palladium, Russia is making out about 28% of palladium manufacturing. I believe it is very important be aware there, although, that I don’t imagine that they are going to cease producing. You’ll most likely see a rise in inventory in Russia. That can simply then be launched, both by different avenues over a time frame or then when the geopolitics clears itself out. So it could be, I’d argue, a short-term affect and better palladium costs.
PETRI REDELINGHUYS: All proper. However nothing actually vital that’s going to considerably affect the underside line within the subsequent set of outcomes form of factor? Effectively, I assume we’ll see the way it seems.
NATASCHA VILJOEN: Yeah. For those who see report costs in palladium, we can be persevering with to place steel out there at superb costs that may clearly stream by into the underside line.
PETRI REDELINGHUYS: All proper. Thanks very a lot to your time, Natascha. Sadly we’re out of time, however I admire you chatting with us this night. As soon as once more, effectively executed on a extremely stellar set of outcomes. It’s been a implausible yr for [the company] and its shareholders as effectively.
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