{"id":1121944,"date":"2019-06-19T15:49:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T15:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=994151"},"modified":"2019-06-19T15:49:17","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T15:49:17","slug":"rio-tinto-axes-iron-ore-full-year-forecast-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1121944","title":{"rendered":"Rio Tinto axes iron ore full-year forecast again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rio Tinto (ASX, LON:RIO), the world\u2019s second largest iron ore miner, has once again cut its production guidance for the commodity<\/a>, this time\u00a0due to operational problems, particularly in the Greater Brockman hub in Australia\u2019s Pilbara region.<\/p>\n

The company now expects to produce between 320 and 330 million tonnes of the steel making ingredient in 2019, down from a previous guidance of 333 to 343 million tonnes.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the change in volume guidance, unit costs will be updated in the second quarter operational review [due on July 16],\u201d Rio said in the statement<\/a>. The company had been targeting unit costs of around $13 a tonne for 2019.<\/p>\n

The news come on the same day its rival Vale (NYSE:VALE), the world\u2019s no.1 iron ore producer, announced that it was\u00a0is ready to fully resume operations at its Brucutu mine<\/a>, the largest in the Minas Gerais state, within 72 hours.<\/p>\n

The iron ore mine has been operating at a third of its 30 million tonne a year capacity since February, so its reopening is expected to bring 5.4 million tonnes of production forward this year.<\/p>\n

Rio\u2019s new forecasted output, however, will offset Vale\u2019s restart, BMO analyst Edward Sterck\u00a0said in a note Wednesday. He sees the announcement adding further tightness to the market and support iron ore prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the third restart announcement since 21 March, so further delays cannot be discounted. Nonetheless, a restart could ease pressure on the iron ore price, although we note this announcement coincides with a 10m cut to iron ore guidance from Rio,\u201d Sterck\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

The miner last cut his full-year iron ore production outlook in April<\/a>, after reporting a 14% drop in iron ore shipments in the first quarter, amid disruption caused by a tropical cyclone that hit its export terminal in Western Australia.<\/p>\n

Iron ore prices have climbed this year on the back supply disruptions and record steel production in China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It now expects to produce between 320 and 330 million tonnes of the steel making ingredient in 2019, down from a previous guidance of 333 to 343 million tonnes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[949,369,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1121944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1121945,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121944\/revisions\/1121945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1121944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1121944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1121944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}