(Reuters) – Rio Tinto reported a 9% drop in first-quarter iron ore shipments on Wednesday, with 2025 Pilbara shipments now expected at the lower end of guidance after tropical cyclones battered Australia’s west coast and disrupted operations.
The series of tropical cyclones in the first quarter had snarled activities at the Dampier port in the Pilbara region and affected Rio Tinto’s shipments.
The company had earlier warned of total losses of 13 million metric tons of iron ore due to inclement weather.
The world’s largest iron ore producer shipped 70.7 million metric tonnes (Mt) of the steel-making commodity from its Pilbara operations in the three months ended March 31, down from 78 Mt in the same period last year.
That missed a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 73.6 Mt.
(Reporting by Roushni Nair & Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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