The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price was trading 2.11% lower today after reporting its latest round of production results.
For context, the broader Australian share market or S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) was trading down 1.91%.
About Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto’s origins date back more than 145 years, but today it is one of world’s largest aluminium and iron ore producers, with much of its sales revenue coming from its operations in Western Australia. It also owns, fully or partly, mining projects for copper, diamonds, uranium and other minerals.
Rio’s quarterly report rundown
Rio Tinto Released its first-quarter report to investors last week, and the COVID-19 pandemic was front and centre. As with other major players in similar industries, safety is at the forefront for its employees and the community in general.
“In these uncertain and unprecedented times we continue to deliver products to our customers with our first priority to protect the health and safety of all our employees and communities.” Rio Tinto Chief Executive J-S Jacques said.
“We are focused on maintaining a business as usual approach and have taken extensive measures to ensure we can do so safely.”
“All of our assets continue to operate and we achieved a very robust production performance in the first quarter. Our world-class portfolio and strong balance sheet serve us well in all market conditions and are particularly valuable in the current volatile environment. Our resilience and value over volume strategy mean we can continue to invest in our business, and support our communities and host governments.”
In terms of production for the March quarter, Rio Tinto reported the following (versus the same period last year)
- Pilbara iron ore shipments of 73 million tonnes (100% basis), 5% higher
- Bauxite production of 13.8 million tonnes, up 8%
- Aluminium production of 0.8 million tonnes in the first quarter was 2% lower
- Mined copper production of 133 thousand tonnes was 8% lower
- Titanium dioxide slag production of 293 thousand tonnes was 1% lower
- Production of pellets and concentrate at the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) was 3% higher
Where to from here?
Rio Tinto explained that demand in China continues to recover. In the rest of the world, the outlook is more uncertain. Commodity supply is being disrupted as COVID-19 restrictions impact supply chains and the movement of people globally.
With the Morrison Government today explaining that we could see Coronavirus restrictions loosened in the near future. We are hopeful that this sentiment is shared by other nations moving forward. If we can avoid seeing another major outbreak in China things will undoubtedly start to look up.
Rio Tinto shares were last seen trading at $87.05, giving the company a market capitalisation more than $25 billion.
[ls_content_block id=”18457″ para=”paragraphs”]
