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Zawya
3 days ago
- Zawya
South Africa: Hundreds of Lesotho diamond mining jobs to be axed following US tariff threats
Lesotho's largest diamond mine, Letšeng Diamonds, blames a weakening US dollar and uncertainty over US trade tariffs for its latest bid to cut hundreds of jobs as a cost-saving measure. Photo: Sechaba Mokhethi The livelihoods of hundreds of miners at Lesotho's largest diamond mine, Letšeng Diamonds, are at risk as the company implements 'cost-saving measures'. In a meeting with some of its 1,225 staff on Thursday, the company announced it would be retrenching between 250 and 300 permanent and contracted workers. This, it said, was as a result of a steady slump in global diamond prices, a weakening US dollar, and uncertainty over US trade tariffs. Spokesperson for the mine, Tšepo Hlojeng, confirmed to GroundUp that the company had started consultations with staff. 'It is our plan to have all activities related to the implementation of the current scenario completed by the end of August 2025.' Hlojeng said that employee benefits will be paid out to the affected employees. While the news came as a shock to many of Letšeng's miners, the company, in a statement last week, said, 'While the company has met its production targets, it has not been immune to the sustained pressure on rough diamond prices and adverse exchange rate movements.' The mine, situated high in the Maluti Mountains, will continue processing at existing levels. But waste mining in both the main and satellite pits will be drastically reduced for the next 12 months, said the company. 'This scale-back is part of a short-term strategy aimed at conserving cash and protecting the long-term viability of operations.' CEO of Letšeng mine, Motooane Thinyane has reportedly estimated that the mine employed about 1,500 people in 2023, both directly and through contractors. Of these workers, 199 lost their jobs in November when the mine terminated its services agreement with one of its key contractors, Minopex Lesotho. Letšeng Diamonds is jointly owned by Gem Diamonds Limited and the government of Lesotho. It is widely regarded as one of the country's most strategic economic assets. The mine is a key contributor to government revenue, foreign exchange earnings, and employment. While expressing confidence in its long-term recovery, the mine admitted that current market conditions had left it with few choices. 'The measures being implemented will position the company for a strong recovery when market conditions improve,' the statement concluded. Although the mine has not disclosed specific figures on how its bottom line has been affected yet, financial filings from its majority shareholder (70%), Gem Diamonds Limited, on the London Stock Exchange provides a clearer picture. In its Full Year Results for the period ending 31 December 2024, Gem Diamonds reported revenue of $154.2m, an annual profit of $8.1m, and an attributable profit of $2.9m. This is a sharp improvement from its 2023 performance, when it recorded $140.3m in revenue, a much lower annual profit of $1.6m, and an attributable loss of $2.1m. The positive momentum continued into early 2025. Between 1 January and 31 March, the mine achieved a record price of $26,441 per carat for a 67.50-carat white diamond. Two stones sold for more than $1m each, generating a combined revenue of $3.5m. But this trend was short-lived. In April, the US imposed 50% tariffs on Lesotho. Though these were later temporarily reduced to 10% with an additional 40% suspended until 1 August, its effects are already impacting the bottom line in the diamond trade. In its April market update, Gem Diamonds noted that by the first quarter of 2025, the company's performance had begun to decline. It sold 20,470 carats, down from 26,356 in the last quarter of 2024, a 22% decrease. Revenues fell to $21.6m, compared to about $32m previously. The mine posted a quarterly loss of $10.6m.
Gulf Today
4 days ago
- Gulf Today
Life after cod: Latvia reinvents its coastal communities
Imants Liepins, Agence France-Presse Fishers do not usually wish for a "perfect storm". But Latvian boating communities are hoping for exactly that: a rare tempest that might, one day, revive waning stocks of Baltic cod. Decreasing salinity in the Baltic Sea is robbing the saltwater fish of the conditions it needs to thrive. And as its population shrinks, so do the fishing traditions that have long characterised villages along Latvia's 494-kilometre (307-mile) coastline. The result for the communities in this small EU nation is a drive to reinvent themselves, to survive. With the European Union steadily cutting allowable catches of Baltic cod, and moving towards a total ban to replenish stocks, towns and villages are diversifying into tourism and seafood processing. "We launched a new marina for yachting, offered services for sea travellers, and a French investor opened a brand new shipyard for yacht building," Agris Stulbergs, harbourmaster for the port in the village of Engure, explained to AFP. Leisure boating has become a favoured activity in this village, located just 50 kilometres from the capital Riga, and others. Farther west, in the port city of Ventspils, Juris Petersons, a lifelong seaman, reminisced how Latvian fishers used to bring in lavish hauls of fish highly valued in kitchens from Russia to Britain. "Back in the mid-80s the Latvian fishing fleet brought in 55,000 tons of Baltic cod, in addition to salmon, herring and many other saltwater fish," he said. Now "the environmental conditions have become so unfavourable to cod growth that Latvian fishermen are allowed to catch just 16 tonnes of cod a year," he said. "And even that amounts only to the accidental by-catch when we fish for herring," said Petersons, an industrial fishing boat skipper until he sold off his trawlers last year. The Baltic Sea is fed by a number of large freshwater rivers. It is connected with the North Sea only through the shallow Danish straits, preventing Atlantic saltwater from entering the Baltic basin. In order to recover, the cod population would need a rare seastorm, with just the right windspeed at the correct angle to push masses of saltwater into the Baltic Sea. That "happened at least twice during the previous century, but currently we're waiting for that perfect storm for the third decade", Petersons said. Given the smaller yield, many in the industry have focused on quality over quantity. "All the fish canning companies... have either gone out of business or turned their production lines into making more valuable export-grade products," said Janis Megnis, chief of the Roja port administration. Their high quality herring and anchovy products "can be found today from Walmart in the United States to stores in Australia and Japan", he said. Political changes have also affected the industry. Historically Latvia's fish processing industry mainly served markets in Russia and Belarus. But with the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, followed by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the resulting Western sanctions, Latvian fishing companies have been forced to seek other markets. The biggest importers today are Canada, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Denmark and the UK, according to the agriculture ministry. New markets include Arab countries and South Africa. Many families in Latvia's coastal towns have also turned their former fisheries into guesthouses and vacation destinations or switched from selling raw fish to the more lucrative smoked, prepared and spiced varieties. "My husband is a fifth-generation fisherman: he goes out to sea for fish, which we then smoke and turn into high-end products," said Iveta Celkarte, who runs a fishing estate in Berzciems village. "We also have a family cafe... serving our own seafood," said Celkarte, who has also become a television and social media personality. Celkarte offers three-hour tours about the history of traditional fishing, taking visitors on a stroll through dunes to the shore and finishing with a special meal. "For me it is important to tell people about the traditions of our coast, the history of fishing and the life of previous generations working on the sea" she said. Aivars Lembergs, a former mayor of Ventspils, said he began turning his city into a manufacturing hub and developing tourism has been key, and is paying off. The city is seeing many tourists coming in from neighbouring Lithuania. "During summers you'll sometimes see more Lithuanians on the streets of Ventspils than Latvians, as Lithuania has a very short Baltic coastline, and their tourists come here to enjoy the short Baltic summer," said Lembergs, who was mayor between 1988 and 2021.
Al Etihad
5 days ago
- Al Etihad
Ozempic maker Novo's profit warning triggers $70 billion share rout
29 July 2025 19:13 COPENHAGEN (REUTERS)Investors knocked $70 billion off Novo Nordisk's market value on Tuesday after the maker of weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy issued a profit warning and named a new CEO, as it battles rising competition in the obesity drug named Maziar Mike Doustdar as its new chief executive, turning to an experienced insider to revive sales and a share price hit by worries the company is falling behind in the weight-loss drug race it of a change at the top deepened a stock market rout, triggered after Novo slashed its outlook for 2025 sales growth to between 8% and 14%, from between 13% and 21% previously. Its shares plunged nearly 30% before paring some losses to trade down about 20% by has been hit by copycat versions of its weight-loss drugs - mixed or compounded by pharmacies. A crackdown on legal compounded versions of Wegovy in May could improve the situation, although Novo said illegal compounding Danish company said in a statement that the cut to its 2025 sales outlook was due to lower growth expectations in the second half in the United States, both for Wegovy and Ozempic in the GLP-1 diabetes drugmaker, which became Europe's most valuable listed company following the launch of Wegovy in 2021, is now facing a reckoning as it looks to turn things around after the abrupt removal in May of CEO Lars Fruergaard its peak in June 2024, Novo was worth as much as $615 billion, but its shares have plunged on investor concerns about the company's experimental drug pipeline and its ability to navigate challenges in the US an Iranian-born, Austrian national, who grew up in the US, joined Novo in 1992 and will take on the new role on August currently serves as vice president for international operations, a role he took after leading the company's businesses first in the Middle East and then in Southeast Asia, Novo has lost its first-mover advantage in the United States this year to US rival Eli Lilly . The new chief executive's most urgent challenge, according to investors and analysts, is to revive Novo's performance in the US, the largest market by far for weight-loss drugs and where they are most profitable. Novo launched its weight-loss drug Wegovy nearly two and a half years before US rival Eli Lilly's Zepbound. But Zepbound prescriptions surpassed those of Wegovy this year by more than 100,000 a week.
