South Africa’s national lockdown is a significant disruption to JSE-listed Hulamin’s operations and has resulted in a decrease in demand for its products, particularly in the general engineering and automotive sectors.
Consequently, Hulamin expects this to negatively impact on its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation in the first half of this year.
Concurrently, the company on April 17 said the London Metals Exchange price of aluminium and the rand:dollar exchange rate had been “particularly volatile” and Hulamin was, therefore, managing cash flows and costs daily to ensure adequate liquidity.
Hulamin closed 2019 with a strong balance sheet, however, and had borrowings below R300-million and “considerable headroom” in its debt facilities, it assured shareholders.