Rio Tinto's Q1 Australian iron ore shipments slid 15% from Q4

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Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) reported Q1 Pilbara iron ore shipments fell 8% from a year ago and 15% compared to Q4 2021, totaling 71.5M metric tons, below consensus estimates for 73.1M tons, citing challenges in advancing new developments.

In its Q1 operations review, Rio (RIO) said the delayed ramp up of its Gudai-Darri project in Western Australia and continuing commissioning challenges at the Mesa A wet plant slowed plans to increase iron ore production at Robe Valley.

As the company starts to ramp up Gudai-Darri, "our iron ore business will have greater production capacity and be better placed to produce additional tons of Pilbara Blend in the second half," CEO Jakob Stausholm said.

Q1 Pilbara iron ore production fell 6.2% Y/Y to 71.7M tons.

Rio Tinto (RIO) should continue to generate substantial cash flow from its asset portfolio as prices remain strong through 2022, The Value Portfolio writes in a bullish analysis posted recently on Seeking Alpha.