Investors are anticipating a marked dip in the fortunes of two of the world's premier platinum producers when Anglo American Platinum (Angloplat) and Impala Platinum Holdings (Implats) deliver their results in the next few weeks.

Analysts say that they expect the performance of Angloplats to show a fall because of the effect of a stronger South African rand which has hit domestic revenues of dollar-denominated platinum-group metals.

The dollar price of platinum rose by 12 per cent in the first six months of the year, but that gain dropped by three per cent when translated into rand.

In addition, industry observers said they would be scrutinising supply and production figures to see how a 'bottleneck' might affect the output of refined metal.

'If that metal that is locked in the system comes out, the end-year production could be higher than expected,' analyst Fidelis Madavo of Investec told Reuters.

The results from Angloplats are expected on July 30th.

Meanwhile expectations for results from Implats, due out on August 28th, are also downbeat.

Headline earnings per share for the 12 months to end-June are expected to fall by 26 per cent, according to a consensus estimate of analysts polled by Reuters Research.

Production at Implats has been hampered this year by a strike in March, which cost the company 9.5 days of lost production or 35,150 ounces of platinum.