BELL Equipment says its positive annual results to December have been helped substantially by rand weakness, but otherwise reflect the "extremely tough" trading conditions in the past year.The maker of heavy earth-moving machinery indicates mining that is dependent on southern hemisphere markets has contracted further, while demand for the group’s primary articulated dump-truck product is shifting towards the northern hemisphere.This was mainly because of rising pressure on commodity prices, and the further slowdown of most world markets in which the company operates. But it was helped by SA’s rand depreciating 35% against the US dollar and 21% against the euro last year."The current year’s comprehensive income significantly exceeded the current year’s profit after tax, due to the substantial depreciation of the rand in 2015, and the impact of this on exchange differences on the translation of the results and net assets of foreign operations into rand," the group said on Tuesday."To...
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