The Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) share price is in focus after the miner announced how much iron ore it shipped in the December period.
Fortescue is one of the world’s largest iron ore miners. It also has a focus on decarbonising its operations.
December 2025 shipments
Fortescue revealed that in the three months to December 2025, it shipped 50.5 million tonnes (mt) in the second quarter of FY26.
That shipments in the quarter meant it achieved iron ore shipments of 100.2mt in the first half of FY26.
Included in those figures were shipments of the high-grade iron ore from Iron Bridge, with 2.2mt in the quarter and 4.3mt over the six months.
Revenue and costs
How much revenue it gets and how much it costs per tonne of iron ore is a big indication of how much profit the miner can make.
Average revenue per dry metric tonne (dmt) of hematite (iron ore) was US$93 for the second quarter. The C1 unit cost for hematite was US$19.10 in the second quarter and US$18.64 for the half.
It revealed that Iron Bridge achieved US$122 per dmt for what was sold.
Fortescue revealed that strong cashflow generation led to a cash balance of US$4.7 billion and net debt of US$1 billion at 31 December 2025 after US$759 million of capital expenditure in the quarter.
Other developments
The company noted that during the quarter, it entered into a binding agreement to buy the remaining 64% of Alta Copper’s shares.
Fortescue said it plans to diversify and expand its copper portfolio, as well as the exploration footprint, in Latin America.
Fortescue said that it delivered the first large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS), making the first installation of a planned 4-5GWh rollout to support the company’s decarbonisation in the Pilbara.
Additionally, the electric excavator fleet was expanded to 12 units and two 14.5MWh battery electric locomotives were delivered to site for integration with Fortescue’s rail operations.
The iron ore miner also noted that after recent successful senior level visits to Gabon, a ‘Presidential Taskforce’ has been established to streamline the planning and delivery for the Belinga Iron Ore Project.
Final thoughts on the Fortescue share price
The ASX iron ore share is doing its best to deliver strong shipments, which it achieved with another record.
It’s an interesting move by the business to expand into copper, which would help diversify its earnings and probably has a better growth outlook than iron ore.
Fortescue can generate good profits with the iron ore price above US$100 per tonne. That bodes well for dividend payments too.
I don’t think the valuation is a great time to buy after a strong rise in the Fortescue share price, but existing shareholders can be happy.
