Hamersley expects much lower profit

Press, 11 April 1978, Page 22

Hamersley expects much lower profit

NZPA Melboumel r Hamersley Holdings, Ltd,,] one of Australia’s main iron- ‘ ore exporters, expected;; profits to “fall significantly’’ l ! I in 1978 and expected only to! i break even in the three!] months to March 31, thejj j company’s chairman (Mr R. 1 Madigan) told the annual ■ j meeting in Melbourne. i “For the first quarter, the tonnage delivered was only 6.2 M tonnes. At this rate ’ the company cannot be ex-, pected to do much better - than break even,” he said. In the first three months , of 1977, Hamersley earned $9.6M on shipments of 7.97 M tonnes of iron ore. In the full year to December 31, it earned a net profit of 557.8 M, 36.5 per cent more than the previous year’s $42.2M. Mr Madigan said that as a

result of the downturn ini the world steel industry, es-j pecially in Japan, “Ham-1 ersley will continue for the l time being to operate at less than capacity.” However, “shipments are! ilikely to be about the samel [as last year.” This comment was made, in spite of his confirmation] that the Japanese Would be! taking less iron ore this} year. He did not say where] Hamersley would ship the! extra ore to maintain last; year’s quantity. Mr Madigan blamed the; exchange rate of the United States dollar for the fall in, Hamersley’s profits. “The unrealistic exchange! rates between the United States and Australian dollar is severly eroding earnings, which can be expected to fall significantly this year.”