- Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) -1.7% premarket after announcing a sharp drop in its Q1 iron ore shipments, but the miner says it will compensate for the weaker start to 2015 to meet its previously announced full-year production target of up to 350M metric tons.
- Rio reported Q1 iron ore shipments of 72.5M metric tons, down 12% Q/Q and missing some analyst forecasts of above 80M, but Rio said wet weather, the impact of a cyclone and a train derailment combined to hurt output and shipments; when compared to the same quarter a year earlier, shipments were rose 9% while production jumped 12% to 74.7M metric tons.
- Rio continues to defend its widely criticized strategy to keep increasing production, as top iron ore exec Andrew Harding argues it is operating in "a competitive, international marketplace” and that other miners would increase their output if Rio did not; Rio’s 2015 target of 350M metric tons is a sharp increase from the 303M metric tons it shipped in 2014.
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Earlier: Turquoise Hill posts Q1 Oyu Tolgoi production