Rio Tinto Foresees Massive Jump to Iron Ore Shipments in 2018

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The leading global mining group Rio Tinto has reported record shipments of iron ore during Q4. With this, the company has also met the production guidance for 2017. The company had posted robust operating results in Q3 '17 too.

In accordance with the quarterly production results, the company’s Pilbara iron ore production totaled 87.9 million tonnes, marginally higher by 3% over the previous year. For the whole year 2017, the production totaled 329.8 million tonnes, almost flat when matched with 2016. The Pilbara iron ore shipments totaled 90 million tonnes, higher by 3% over the corresponding quarter in 2016 and also higher by 5% over Q3 ’17. The yearly shipments jumped higher marginally by 1% to total 330.1 million tonnes.

The press release by the company notes that the iron ore shipments from its Western Australia assets are likely to report strong growth during the current year. It plans to make investment of nearly $3 billion over the next three years in order to sustain the output from the region. Also, studies are already underway on a new mine that could commence production by 2021. The company has kept its shipment guidance for 2018 unchanged.

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Rio Tinto reported 11% year-on-year jump in volume of mined copper during Q4 ’17. However, the yearly volume registered a decline of 9% to total 478,100 tonnes. The decline in output was mainly on account of the delay in ramp-up of expansion works at Escondida mine in Chile and the changes in Kennecott mine in Utah. The prolonged strike at Escondida during the first quarter of 2017 also impacted the yearly production volume. According to the company, the mined copper output is expected to grow stronger to total around 510,000 tonnes and 610,000 tonnes in 2018.

Among other commodities, bauxite production increased by 6% to touch 50.8 million tonnes in 2017. The third party shipments recorded a jump of 10% to 32.3 million tonnes. The aluminum production at 3.6 million tonnes was 1% lower when matched with 2016. The production of hard coking coal too has declined by 5% over the previous year to total 7.7 million tonnes.

The company forecasts the coking coal output to total around 7.5 million tonnes and 8.5 million tonnes in 2018. The bauxite output may range between 49 million tonnes and 51 million tonnes. The total aluminum production is forecasted between 3.5 million tonnes and 3.7 million tonnes.