[SMM Express] Higher Prices Drove Merafe's Doubled H1 2026 Profit as Ferrochrome Inventory Drawdown Offsets Lower Output

Merafe Resources' full H1 2026 results, released 11 August, show profit more than doubling to R512 million from R233 million a year earlier, with HEPS up 64% to 20.7 cents and revenue up 36% to R3.43 billion. The board quadrupled its interim dividend to 16 cents a share, from 4 cents, as net cash from operations swung to R976 million from R175 million utilized a year earlier. Merafe attributed the earnings increase to higher commodity prices and higher volumes sold over the period.

The results disclose sales volumes for the first time, revealing how those volumes held up despite a 75% collapse in ferrochrome production, to 28,000 tonnes. Ferrochrome sales fell just 4% to 73,000 tonnes, a gap that can only be explained by Merafe drawing down existing finished ferrochrome stock built up in H1 2025, when production of 112,000 tonnes had far outpaced that period's sales of 76,000 tonnes. Chrome ore told a different story: production of 425,000 tonnes still exceeded sales of 380,000 tonnes, meaning ore inventory kept growing, even as the 75% jump in ore sales volumes from 217,000 tonnes a year earlier helped underpin revenue.

The group also reported no fatalities, a 24% improvement in its injury frequency rate to 1.36, and net asset value up 7% to R5.03 billion. Together, the figures confirm that firmer pricing, not fresh production, was the primary driver of Merafe's H1 2026 earnings, with the ferrochrome inventory drawdown specifically helping bridge the gap between what the venture produced and what it sold.