We see a trading update from the biggest miner of platinum, Anglo American Platinum Limited this morning, released at exactly 9am. Brace yourself, it is ugly looking. "HEPS for the period is expected to decrease by between 24% and 34%." Sad face. For the full year 2010, the company made 1935 cents HEPS. Expect HEPS for the full year to be in the region of 1277 to 1470 cents, 1373 is the middle of the range. Two big reasons for lower earnings, "the impact of the once off accounting charge for the broad-based community development transaction (R1.07 billion)" and something else that we have talking about for a while now: "HEPS for the period has also been adversely affected by the high number of safety stoppages resulting in lower production, as well as high industry cost inflation, particularly for labour and electricity."
I ask you with tears in my eyes, why is the platinum price not trading higher? Anglo Plats are more than four and a third percent lower on the news. We will get a closer look at the results when they are released around the 13th of February, that is what the company has indicated.