Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto shipped 85.4 million tonnes of iron ore in the April-June quarter of 2019, but this volume was down by around 3% year on year, according to the company's second-quarter operations review published on Tuesday July 16.
The lower shipments of 100% basis iron ore were due to disruptions to its operations when Western Australia was hit by Tropical Cyclone Veronica at the end of March this year, which in turn affected logistics operations in April.The supply disruptions caused by the cyclone damage led Rio Tinto to revise its shipment guidance for 2019 downward on two occasions.Since doing that, however, the company has maintained its shipment guidance for the year at 320-330 million tonnes, although its unit cost guidance has been revised to $14-15 per tonne, up from the previous figure of $13-14...