Rio Tinto Stocks Drop after a Weak Q4 Production Update

On Tuesday, shares of Rio Tinto Group declined after it reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter production results.

The world’s second-largest mining company edged down as much as 1.97% to $77.73 in the early market session.

As of writing, it trades at 0.35% or 0.27 points lower to $78.91 per share. Then, it decreased 8.34% or 7.18 points from its performance last year.

Accordingly, the firm stands with a market valuation of $127.76 billion and shares outstanding of 1.16 billion.

Rio Tinto shares are still on watch after posting a 5.00% fall to 84.10 million tonnes (Mt) in Pilbara iron ore shipments.

The latest figures fell short from the average market expectation of 88.90 Mt.

In line with this, the full-year iron ore shipments shed 3.00% year-on-year to 321.60 Mt.

Similarly, its mined copper posted at 132.00 metric kilotons (kt), unchanged from the prior period. However, it is still under the forecasted 133.00 kt.

Eventually, this led to a drop of 7.00% to 494.00 kt in the entire year.

The downturn reflected the short recoveries and throughput at Escondida due to the persisting impact of the pandemic.

Likewise, Rio Tinto’s aluminum production decreased 7.00% to 757.00 kt in the fourth quarter.

Consequently, this ultimately put its full-year output into the red for the year, holding about 1.00% low to 3,151.00 kt.

The reduced capacity at its Kitimat smelter in British Columbia and a strike last July drove the loss.

Rio Tinto Sees Lower 2022 Iron Ore Shipments

Moreover, Rio Tinto forecasted a slight decline in the 2022 iron ore shipments.

The mining giant stated that it now expects to ship between 320.00 million and 335.00 million tonnes this year.

The projection is a mid-point lower than the experts’ estimated between 330.00 Mt and 340.00 Mt.

The hampered production from the new greenfields mine and job shortages in Western Australia resulted in lower iron ore shipments from the Pilbara region.

Furthermore, the weaker demand from its leading consumer China partly hit its latest quarterly results.

The Chinese debt-ridden property sector resulted in weaker construction activity that weighed on raw materials demand.

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