SOUTH32 on Thursday reported a loss for the first half of its financial year as commodity prices remained low, prompting write-downs against the value of its assets.But CEO Graham Kerr remained upbeat about the company’s prospects."The continuing optimisation of our high-quality operations and balance sheet has enabled us to reduce net debt by almost $300m, despite continued weakness in commodity markets. Our low financial gearing and operational leverage is a powerful combination and the decisive action we are taking across our portfolio will strengthen short-term cash flow," said Mr Kerr.The BHP Billiton spin-off said that in the six months to December 31 2015, revenue had slumped 27% to $2.98bn. Basic underlying earnings per share had plunged 94% to $0.5c compared with the year-earlier period.The miner reported a net loss of $1.75bn compared with a pro-forma profit of $339m in the previous year.South32 said it would take an impairment charge of $1.7bn. The amount included a $916m...
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