Johannesburg - South32, which was spun out of BHP Billiton, has seemingly incurred the wrath of the US authorities over its supply of Silicomanganese to the States.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the the aluminum to manganese producer, says the United States Department of Commerce has issued a notice of a preliminary anti-dumping determination against the miner.
The department has set a 11.93 percent rate for imports of Silicomanganese of Australian origin into the United States, of which Temco is a producer, it says
Temco is owned by Gemco, which South32 has a 60 percent stake in. It is a manganese alloy plant located in Tasmania, Australia, while Gemco is a manganese mining operation located in the Northern Territory, Australia.
South32 says the Department of Commerce will continue its investigations and is expected to make a final determination next year, while the US International Trade Commission is expected to start with its final injury investigation.
Temco will defend its position, says South32, noting it is “disappointed with the imposition of these preliminary measures and will review its options”.
The preliminary finding does not impact South32’s manganese ore operations in Australia and South Africa, which accounted for 95 percent of underlying earnings before interest and tax from its manganese business in the 2015 financial year.
The miner, the world’s biggest producer of manganese ore,in June delayed the planned restart of three ferromanganese furnaces in its Samancor venture with Anglo in South Africa and flagged a potential writedown.
South32 recently released its results and noted it too had needed to write down assets because of the commodities price rout.
The producer, created in mining’s biggest spinoff in almost a decade after it began trading on its own in may, said BHP had estimated pre-tax impairments of $1.9 billion on the value of South32’s manganese and thermal coal operations. It was doing its own valuation of the assets and would keep the market informed, it said in July.
IOL