The world's leading platinum producer, Anglo Platinum (Angloplat), has confirmed that profits during the second half of the year will be affected by a strike, a closed smelter and more dividends on new preference shares.

In a trading statement released yesterday, Angloplat said that headline earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders were expected to increase by 17.7 per cent to R2.46 billion in 2004, compared to a jump of 33 per cent during the first six months of the year.

However, thanks to an earlier warning that second half performance would be weaker, shares in Angloplat were barely affected by the news.

Commenting on the results investor relations manager Trevor Raymond told Reuters: "We said we'd had a strike and the strike would obviously impact.

"The combination of the strike and the Polokwane smelter being down would all have had an impact on how the results panned out."

The two-week strike caused the loss of 50,000 oz in refined platinum output, reducing Angloplat's annual production target to 2.4 million ounces.

In relation to the deduction of preference dividends, if this was removed, total annual headline earnings were expected to increase 24.5 per cent to R2.61 billion.