YORKCOR WEATHERS FEROCIOUS COMPETITION

Yorkcor is better placed strategically than it was a year ago, says chairman
Solly Tucker, with the company posting attributable profit of 14.1c per
share for the 12 months to 31 December 2001.

While this is a drop from 31.2c per share in the previous year, it must be
seen against a background of intense  industry conditions  - one in four
formal sector sawmills  operated at a loss last year.

"In the teeth of fierce competition, we achieved 11.5% more for Yorkcor
lumber products during 2001 by improving our product mix - a year in which
the industry's lumber price increased by only 2.6%. Merit was the measure.
We effectively neutralised the adverse impact of much higher log prices paid
to SAFCOL (the state-owned forestry group) and our margins improved
appreciably."

Yorkcor ended the year with cash of R3.6 million in the bank, and retired
one-tenth of its interest bearing debt. Current liabilities were reduced by
17% to R16.9 million. No dividend has been declared.

The results are to be seen in the context of pending litigation against
SAFCOL, the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, and his director-
general. Tucker says SAFCOL and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
(DWAF) have, since 1994, resorted to various devices to neutralise or
eliminate its indefinite long-term contracts.

SAFCOL, in the throes of being privatised, has attempted to terminate two of
Yorkcor's three evergreen timber supply contracts. The outcome of litigation
against SAFCOL before the Competition Tribunal and High Court was pending at
the time of writing. "We do not think that there would be this kind of
attack upon our supply entitlements (by SAFCOL), were it not for the

privatisation process that is underway," says Tucker.

A 1996 High Court order validated the indefinite duration of Yorkcor's
contract with Safcol, in terms of which it was obliged to supply a

guaranteed volume of sawlogs, while opening its forest management records
for inspection.

The subsequent appeal by DWAF was dismissed in December 2000 and last year
Yorkcor  banked more than R6 million in damages for breach of contract,
interest and costs. The Supreme Court of Appeal also demanded that

government make a "strategic five yearly quantified offer of supply in terms
of our evergreen contract", which it has failed to do. Contempt of court
proceedings have since been instigated, at Yorkcor's insistence, against the
Minister and his director-general, for failing to take steps to honour
certain court orders.

In December 2001, the Minister gave five years' notice of termination of the
York Lumber contract, with the intention of converting the timberlands into
a conservation area - ostensibly in the public interest. Agreement on
compensation to be paid to Yorkcor must be reached by 30 June 2002, after
which the amount of compensation is to be referred to an arbitrator.

Estimates by a firm of professional consultants puts the figure at several
times that initially offered by government.

Looking forward, Tucker says he expects the industry to do much better in
2002. "By attrition and uncertainty in the locust years since 1994,  (the
industry's) supply capacity has been thinned out. The survivors, like
Yorkcor, know which way to go and have begun to get there."

Consideration will be given to distributing a portion of the compensation to
be  received  for  termination  of the York  Lumber  contract.  The  primary
concern,  however,  is to ensure fresh investment in timber  conversion  and
marketing, especially exports.
Ends.
ISSUED    FOR Yorkcor Limited
:

CONTACT:      Solly Tucker  012 804 9730  Cell: 083 456 9900
FAX NO::      012 804 8611
E-MAIL:       sol@yorkcor.co.za
ISSUED BY :   TISH STEWART PR ASSOCIATES

CONTACT:      Tish Stewart   011 325 4195   Cell:  082 443 6399
FAX NO:       011 325-4199
E-MAIL:       tish@tspr.co.za
DATE  :       18 March 2002