Mineral sands miner Iluka Resources Limited has issued an update predicting lower sales volumes and deteriorating economic outlooks.

 

In the revised guidance, Iluka  said that “a marked deterioration in major regional economies, more pessimistic official forward outlooks and commentary and the absence of anticipated or effective policy responses since the company’s previous disclosure in early May, have had a flow on impact on mineral sands customer confidence levels and future business performance expectations, which is likely to influence sales volumes materially over the remainder of 2012”.

 

The statement follows an initial downgrade in May, which it tempered with the hope of improved sales in the second half.

 

However, Managing Director, David Robb, said that the revised forcast “reflects the fact that we are considerably more pessimistic about the performance of major global economies and their future trajectories than we were at the beginning of the year, or indeed two months ago”.

 

Iluka is now predicting sales of 200,000 – 300,000 tonnes of zircon, down from the 400,000 tonnes forecasted in May and 450,000 tonnes in the previous forecast, with total sales of zircon, rutile and synthetic rutile in the range of 510 – 720 thousand tonnes, down from 965,000 tonnes forecast in May, and total sales of 1,036 thousand tonnes in 2011.