AFP - British mining group Anglo-American published a report on Thursday 30 April showing that iron ore is one of the only products for which production has increased in the first quarter, activity in general being strongly affected by the global slowdown.

Platinum mine in South Africa

Production of iron ore increased by 22% for the year to 9,992 million tones, though it decreased by 1% since December. Anglo-American indicated that this rise is chiefly due to the growing strength of its factory in Sishen, near Cape Town in South Africa.

The group has seen a drop in demand for almost all the rest of its products.

Among base metals, production of copper fell by 5.4% in the year (-12.2% since the end of December), nickel fell by 2.2% (-6.3% since the end of December), zinc was down 0.1% (-0.1%) and lead dropped by 14.6% (+1.4%).

For precious metals, production of refined platinum decreased by 5.8% (-52%) and palladium saw a drop of 4.5% (-47.9%).

Production of Eskom coal advanced by 0.9% compared to last year but fell by 10.9% in the quarter, thermal coal production decreased by 0.8% in the year and 9.6% in the quarter and the production of metallurgical coal was down 2.2% for the year and 31.4% in the quarter.

Diamond production tumbled 90.8% in the year and 90% in the quarter.

The group alluded to the reduction in demand dozens of times in its press release and recalled that they had taken “a series of measures in response to the current economic climate”, notably a capital increase of $1.7 billion, which has stirred up demand.

Also, in February the group launched a drastic restructuring plan, with plans to cut 19,000 jobs across the world and to suspend shareholder dividends until further notice.

Anglo-American has elsewhere been pulling out of non-strategic activities, particularly obvious with the sale of its residual stake in the gold producer AngloGold Ashanti, which, according to the press release, has brought $1.8 billion back into the group.