Rio Tinto beats Q1 iron ore production estimates, lowers annual forecast

Mining giant Rio Tinto posted stronger than expected iron ore production for the first quarter on Friday but lowered its annual copper output forecast due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rio Tinto said iron ore production was up 2.4% year-on-year at 77.8m tonnes for the first quarter, despite both pandemic-related interruptions and a cyclone that tore through its Western Australian operations in February.

The FTSE 100-listed group shipped 72.9m tonnes of iron ore during the quarter - up 5.5% from a year earlier but short of estimates of 74.4m tonnes.

Despite the encouraging numbers, Rio was forced to halt operations in South Africa and slowed activity in Canada and Mongolia following government measures to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.

However, some recovering demand in China following months of lockdown encouraged Rio somewhat - even if the outlook in the rest of the world was "more uncertain".

Rio also cut copper output forecasts 10.4% to 475,000-520,000 tonnes due to coronavirus-related disruptions at its Chilean joint venture and repair work at Kennecott in the US following an earthquake. Refined copper output forecasts were slashed 19.5% to 165,000-205,000 tonnes.

The Anglo-Australian firm also lowered its spending estimate from $7bn to $5bn-$6bn to help conserve cash due to the uncertain future for the global economy.

As of 0925 BST, Rio shares were up 5.59% at 3,900.50p.