Rio Tinto Earnings to Take a Hit During H2 This Year

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The underlying earnings of the company during the second half are likely to be hit badly by Covid-19-related labour shortages in Western Australia and rising inflation, warned global miner Rio Tinto. The company is likely to witness lack of operational momentum.

Ri Tinto expects misses across the board in its Q2 output. However, it maintained its earlier full-year 2022 iron ore shipments guidance of 320-335 million tonnes, on hopes that the newly commissioned Gudai-Darri mine in the Pilbara region to boost production and reach full capacity by 2023.

The rising number of Covid-19 cases resulted in elevated levels of employee absences, which resulted in 2% dip in iron ore shipments in the initial half of the year. The shipments were impacted by adverse weather conditions as well. The overall quarterly shipments recorded 4.7% surge to 79.9 million tonnes in Q2 2022, slightly lower than estimates.

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The company statement noted that continued ramp-up of Gudai-Darri mine is expected to deliver increased production volumes and improved product mix in the second half of the year. Incidentally, Rio Tinto has scheduled to release its financial results for the initial six-month period of the year on July 27^th.

Rio Tinto recorded increased pre-tax costs of about $400 million in the first half of fiscal 2022.