March 16 (Reuters) – South Africa’s Exxaro Resources (EXXJ.J) reported on Thursday a 28% jump in its annual profit, supported by higher coal prices, and also declared a lower dividend payout as the miner still faces rail logistics problems.
The diversified mining and energy company’s headline earnings per share – the main profit measure in South Africa – came in at 60.16 rand ($3.27) in the year ended Dec. 31, compared with 46.83 rand in 2021.
Exxaro said it realised an average coal price of $251 per tonne last year, up from $96 in 2021, due to a price surge after the European Union banned coal imports from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Like its coal-exporting peers, Exxaro said it could not fully exploit export opportunities due to rail logistics problems in South Africa that were caused by state-owned Transnet’s underperformance.
Transnet is struggling to haul minerals to port due to the shortage of locomotives and spares as well as cable theft and vandalism of its infrastructure.
Exxaro, which resorted to trucking some of its coal to port to get around the rail challenges, said it exported 5.2 million tonnes in 2022, down from 7.6 million tonnes the previous year.
The company declared a final dividend of 11.36 rand per share, compared with 11.75 rand last year.
($1 = 18.4114 rand)
Reporting by Nelson Banya; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
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