Rio Tinto faces labour crunch, warns of inflation hit
SYDNEY : Rio Tinto said today (July 15) it was facing labour shortages in the resource-rich state of Western Australia and warned that rising inflation would impact its underlying earnings in the second half. Rising Covid-19 cases at its Pilbara operations have led to “elevated levels of unplanned absences”, driving a 2% drop in shipments of the steel-making commodity in the first half, the miner said. Adverse weather conditions also played spoilsport. For the second quarter, shipments rose 4.7% to 79.9 million tonnes (Mt), narrowly missing an RBC estimate of 80.2 Mt and a UBS estimate of 80 Mt. Rio kept its full-year iron ore shipment guidance unchanged at between 320 Mt and 335 Mt, as it expects its newly opened Gudai-Darri mine in Pilbara to continue to increase output and reach full capacity by 2023. “As Gudai-Darri continues to ramp-up, we expect increased production volumes and improved product mix in the second half,” Rio said in a statement. The results come as Rio takes on inflationary pressures and the risk of weaker demand for iron ore from top consumer China.
Rio Tinto faces labour crunch, warns of inflation hit
SYDNEY : Rio Tinto said today (July 15) it was facing labour shortages in the resource-rich state of Western Australia and warned that rising inflation would impact its underlying earnings in the second half. Rising Covid-19 cases at its Pilbara operations have led to “elevated levels of unplanned absences”, driving a 2% drop in shipments of the steel-making commodity in the first half, the miner said. Adverse weather conditions also played spoilsport. For the second quarter, shipments rose 4.7% to 79.9 million tonnes (Mt), narrowly missing an RBC estimate of 80.2 Mt and a UBS estimate of 80 Mt. Rio kept its full-year iron ore shipment guidance unchanged at between 320 Mt and 335 Mt, as it expects its newly opened Gudai-Darri mine in Pilbara to continue to increase output and reach full capacity by 2023. “As Gudai-Darri continues to ramp-up, we expect increased production volumes and improved product mix in the second half,” Rio said in a statement. The results come as Rio takes on inflationary pressures and the risk of weaker demand for iron ore from top consumer China.