ENRC shares have taken another tumble after the London-listed Kazakh miner cut its investment plan and slashed its interim dividend.
The miner, whose shares have underperformed the UK mining sector by more than 30% since the start of the year, said it would spend roughly $2.4bn (£1.5bn) in 2012 compared to an earlier forecast of $2.7bn. It will also cut its interim dividend by almost 60% to 6.5 cents per share.
The shares dropped 26p to £58.38.
ENRC's first-half revenues fell 19% to $3.2bn. Pre-tax profits dropped 59% to $667m.
The problems stem from falling commodity prices, particularly iron ore which is languishing near 31-month lows.
Jim Cochrane, ENRC's chief commercial officer, said:
Overall, consumption is reasonably good, but with steel production growth slowing and major iron ore producers announcing record production, supply has caught up with demand.
The oversupply situation in ferrochrome will not get resolved this year and similarly for iron ore – unless there is a significant change, we don't expect prices to recover during this year.
