(Reuters) -Rio Tinto on Tuesday reported softer-than-anticipated third-quarter iron ore shipments and warned it would require a vigorous year-end push to attain the lower end of its annual target, even as copper output races to the top of its forecast. Four cyclones have disrupted schedules early this year, prompting Rio Tinto to forecast its 2025 […]
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Rio Tinto banks on strong Q4 to meet annual iron ore forecast; copper gathers steam
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(Reuters) -Rio Tinto on Tuesday reported softer-than-anticipated third-quarter iron ore shipments and warned it would require a vigorous year-end push to attain the lower end of its annual target, even as copper output races to the top of its forecast.
Four cyclones have disrupted schedules early this year, prompting Rio Tinto to forecast its 2025 iron ore shipments at the lower end of its 323 million tonnes to 338 million tonnes (Mt) range.
The company said the cyclones impacted a total of 13 Mt worth of shipments in the first quarter and that Rio Tinto was on track to recover about half of them.
It shipped 84.3 Mt from its Pilbara operations during the third quarter, narrowly missing the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 85.5 Mt.
Shipments of Rio’s newly introduced lower-grade 60.8% Pilbara Blend, which began in July, rose by more than 50% quarter-on-quarter as the company reallocated material from its SP10 product.
As a result, SP10 accounted for just 9% of total shipments this quarter, down sharply from 29% in the previous period.
The quarter was the first under new CEO and former head of iron ore Simon Trott, who in August announced a simplification of the company’s structure into three divisions: global iron ore, aluminium and lithium, and copper.
Like its peers, Rio Tinto is ramping up the production of copper, which is expected to be in high demand during the transition to greener forms of energy.
The three months to September were a record quarter in terms of production at Oyu Tolgoi and Rio remains on track to boost copper output by more than 50% this year, reflecting the ramp-up at the Mongolian mine.
The miner reported a second consecutive record quarter of bauxite production and lifted its full-year estimate to a range of 59 Mt to 61 Mt, on the back of strong performance at the Amrun bauxite mine.
(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee & Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)