South Africa-focused platinum producer Lonmin reported a core profit on Monday after cost savings, and said it expected firm chemical and car industry demand for the rest of the year despite the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal.

Its shares rose more than 14% in early trading, outperforming the wider mining sector, which was around 2% higher.

Lonmin seems to be surviving the ongoing platinum group market storm, which has been falling consistently in recent periods.

The latest report from Statistics South Africa showed that the mining sector shed 18% in March, largely due to declines in the platinum group metals (PGM), iron ore and manganese ore.

PGMs contributed a massive 27% to the fall in overall mining production and output. Lonmin’s shares have lost around 90% value over the past year, as a result of strikes, rising costs and plunging platinum prices.

In December, the company raised R6.2bn by selling new shares. In its first-half results statement, Lonmin said it had cut losses per share to 1.8 cents from a loss of 164.6 cents the same time a year ago, and reported a core profit of R561m versus a loss of R93m in the first half of 2015.

Cost-cutting is ahead of schedule, with close to 70% of the full-year target of savings of R700m already achieved.

Lonmin CEO Ben Magara said he did not anticipate any further job cuts at current market conditions, but added conditions could change.

Lonmin shed more than 5 000 jobs through its restructuring processes in a bid to cope with escalating costs and falling metal prices.

“These results reflect the positive momentum in Lonmin, we have delivered on our promise to restructure and cut high cost production in this oversupplied market while simultaneously reducing costs and improving cash flows,” Magara said.

He said on a quarter on quarter basis, Lonmin has reduced unit costs to R10 390 a PGM ounce and improved the net cash to R1 781bn.

“There is still a lot of hard work ahead as we squeeze out more costs and drive operational improvements and our key risks remain safety and its related stoppages and relationships.

“Lonmin has long life, shallow mining assets and unrivalled processing expertise and an invaluable mine to market business,” he said. – with Reuters.