South Africa’s Kumba Iron Ore posted an 18% rise in annual profit on the back of higher mineral prices and stronger sales volumes driven by improved freight rail and port logistics.
Kumba, a unit of Anglo American, said its headline earnings per share increased to R45.97 (US$2.86) in the year to December 2025 from R38.94 in the previous year.
Africa’s top iron ore miner said the rise in earnings was mainly due to a higher average realised free-on-board export iron ore price of US$95 per wet metric ton in 2025, up from US$92 a year before. Sales volumes were up 2% at 37 million tons.
Iron ore market prices were supported by resilient Chinese pig iron production, on the back of strong export demand.
Improved rail performance drives higher sales
Kumba CEO Mpumi Zikalala said the company’s performance had also been boosted by improving logistics, thanks to ongoing collaboration between bulk mineral exporters and South Africa’s state-owned freight rail and port operator Transnet.
The private firms are providing technical assistance to help Transnet maintain its ore export tracks, including the 861 km (535 mile) line which runs from mines in the Northern Cape to Saldanha port in the Western Cape.
“Ore railed to the port rose by 6%, and this was despite derailments that were suffered during the year,” Zikalala said during a results call.
“Rail performance improved to 84% of contracted volumes, which, together with improved equipment availability at the Saldanha Bay Port, resulted in the 2% increase in our sales,” she added.
Kumba cut its on-mine iron ore stockpile to 5.7 million tons at the end of December 2025 from 6.9 million tons at the close of the previous year, reflecting improvements in freight rail logistics performance.
The company declared a final dividend of R15.43 per share, compared to R19.90 per share in 2024.
