Kumba Iron Ore Limited: Impact of Transnet strike

Kumba Iron Ore Limited ("Kumba") is pleased to note the statement made by Transnet that the strike by the majority union of the Transnet workforce has ended and that, even though a minority union is still out on strike, Transnet is confident that rail operations will normalise during this week.

Kumba implemented contingency plans to aide the railing and loading of iron ore for export  throughout the strike. These plans were successful in mitigating the impact of the strike action upon Kumba's operations, to the extent that Kumba was able to continue to rail significant ore volumes down the Iron Ore Export Channel and load at Saldanha Port.

As at 08:00 on Monday, 24 May, Kumba had railed 70%, and loaded 78%, of its contractual volumes for the period of the strike. As such, Kumba's railage plans were negatively impacted by only 470kt and its loading plans by only 327kt.

Some stockpiles were utilised to help meet our contractual obligations with customers. As at 24th May, stock levels at Saldanha Port were 1.55 Mt, compared with 1.7 Mt when the strike started on 10 May.

Production at Sishen Mine and Thabazimbi Mine was not affected and continued as planned throughout the period.

Kumba is confident that the backlog in delivery and loading will be made up in due course and that the strike should have no long-term effect on the company's exports.