Afarak Group PLC (LON:AFRK) chief executive Guy Konsbruck told investors that its management is responding to the challenges facing the business.
“The executive management team is highly focused on optimising the performance of the South African assets,” Konsbruck said in the company’s full-year results statement for 2018.
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“The Mogale plant is today under a new management team which is tasked with improving operations and cutting costs.
“The team has already started to implement a turnaround strategy and production is shifting from charge chrome to high carbon ferrochrome which currently commands higher margins. Mining operations are also being re-focused with a resulting reduction in fixed costs and capital expenditure.”
Revenue for the fourth quarter reduced to €47mln, compared to €50.6mln in the corresponding period of 2017, and for the whole of 2018, it generated €194mln compared to €198.8mln in 2017.
The company reported an €18.6mln loss for the year, versus a €6.7mln profit in the year before.
Konsbruck added: “2018 marked a particularly disruptive and difficult year for Afarak.”
“The unforeseen challenges in the South African assets were exacerbated by the lower average ferrochrome benchmark prices.
“These factors led to the group posting poor results when compared to the record performance for 2017."