South Africa's Kumba Iron Ore expects iron ore prices to remain stable in the H1 of 2014 and then soften in the H2 as more supply from large producers comes on stream.

Mr Norman Mbazima CEO of Kumba said that “In the last two weeks prices have been moderating fairly rapidly but we think they have stabilized now and we expect that stability to continue for the first half of the year. After that, I think that the (growing) supply from the majors will start to soften the prices again.”

Kumba, a division of Anglo American expects to secure mining rights over logistics group Transnet's rail properties, which are important for the expansion of its large Sishen mine in Northern Cape province, in the H1 of this year.

Kumba, the major contributor to Anglo American's profit, is battling technical constraints which curbed production at Sishen mine and is aiming to expand its output from 31 million tonnes in 2013 to 35 million in 2014.