Rio Tinto reports fall in 2019 iron ore shipments

Rio Tinto reported a 3% fall in iron ore shipments in 2019 as a cyclone and a fire at a port facility disrupted operations.

Iron ore shipped from the Australian Pilbara region in 2019 was 327.4m tonnes, inside its forecast of 320m – 330m, the company said on Friday.

Iron ore shipments in the final quarter of 2019 fell to 86.8m tonnes from 87.4m a year earlier. Rio said it expected 2020 shipments to be between 330m - 343m tonnes.

Fourth quarter production of 83.6m tonnes was 3% lower than the same period of 2018 and 4% lower than the previous three months due to normal maintenance cycles and mine sequencing, Rio said in a trading update.

“In the first half of 2019, shipments were impacted by significant weather disruptions, a fire at the Cape Lambert A port facility and operational challenges,” it added.

“Performance in the second half of 2019 was strong, with both production and shipments exceeding the same period in 2018 despite the extended rail maintenance shut limiting rail capacity for 12 days.”