Orica flags $400m first-half earnings hit

Orica has flagged writedowns and provisions totalling nearly $400 million to be included in its first-half earnings due in May.

workers and truck at Orica's Kurri Kurri plant

Orica's plant at Kurri Kurri. The company has flagged $400 million in hits to its first-half result. (AAP)

Explosives and fertiliser maker Orica expects operational issues and writedowns to cut its first-half earnings by nearly $400 million.

The company has also flagged a further streamlining of its businesses, including job losses, to deliver an incremental $30 million per annum from 2018/19, but has given no details.

Orica's shares dropped 65 cents, or 3.5 per cent, to $18.00.

The company says its Minova ground support solutions business has continued to underperform despite a change in management, and while the business is under review it anticipates it will take a non-cash impairment and increase provisions for environmental commitments totalling $300 million.

The company also expects to write down the value of deferred tax assets and deferred interest in the US by $55 million due to the recent reduction in the US corporate tax rate.

In addition, unplanned maintenance shutdowns at its Yarwun plant in Queensland and Kooragang Island plant in NSW will reduce earnings by about $17 million.

It will write off around a further $15 million due to the impact of extreme weather on mine operations in the US and challenges in the cyanide market.

Plus, it will record a one-off impact of $19 million for the full financial year due to construction quality issues at its Burrup ammonium nitrate plant in WA, with most of it weighted in the first-half accounts.

Orica, the world's biggest supplier of commercial explosives, has been looking to benefit from the partial recovery in prices of key commodities such as iron ore, oil and coal.

Chief executive Alberto Calderon told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in December that 2017/18 volumes of ammonium nitrate shipped would be at the upper end of previous forecasts.

Orica on Thursday reaffirmed that guidance and said the earnings performance will be skewed to the second half of the current financial year, which is expected to see incremental earnings of around $60 million.

Orica's first-half ends on March 31 and it is due to report earnings on May 7.


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Source: AAP



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