According to Mining News Pro - On quarterly basis, miner depicted marginal increase in shipments to 86.8 MnT in Q4 CY19 when compared to Q3 CY19 sales at 86.1 MnT. However, when compared to Q4 CY18 at 87.4 it dropped by 1%.

IOC production increased 18% in CY19
IOC iron ore pellet & concentrate production in CY`19 recorded at 10.5 MnT, up 18% as against 8.9 MnT in CY18.

However, production for the last quarter CY19 fell 10% to 2.6 MnT as compared Q4CY18 due to unplanned equipment related downtime. Production dropped 13% in Q4 CY19 when compared to Q3 CY19 at 3 MnT.

Iron ore production down 3% in CY19
Rio Tinto`s Pilbara depicted 3% fall on yearly basis in iron ore production to 326.7 MnT in CY19 as against 337.7 MnT in CY18.

For the quarter, the production fell 4% to 83.6 MnT in Q4 CY19 against 87.3 MnT in Q3 CY19. Also, it dropped 3% compared to 86.6 MnT in Q4 CY18 due to normal mantainance cycles and mine sequencing.

The mine depicted improved performance in both production and sales towards second half of the year due to recovery post cyclone towards first half of 2019.

The miner achieved average price realization of USD 79/wmt, FoB basis as against USD 57.8/wmt, FoB basis in CY18.

Rio Tinto guidance for 2020:

1. Rio Tinto set’s its 2020 Pilbara iron ore shipment guidance at 330-343 MnT.

2. At IOC, the iron ore pellet and concentrate production guidance for 2020 set at 10.5-12 MnT.

Rio Tinto recent updates

1. The Koodaideri iron ore mine project and Robe River Joint Venture (West Angelas and Robe Valley) project are working on schedule. The first ore from both the project is expected in 2021, in line with previous guidance.

2. On 27th Nov’19, the miner announced investment in Greater Tom Price operations to help sustain production capacity. This will facilitate mining of existing and new deposits, the project construction will start in the first quarter of 2020 with first ore expected towards 2021.