Australian miner Fortescue on Thursday reported a 3% drop in its quarterly iron ore shipments because of increased maintenance and lower port stockpiles, while operational problems at its Iron bridge project limited processing.
Fortescue, which is reeling from the impact of an executive exodus, shipped 45.9 million tons of the steel-making commodity in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with 47.5 million tonsa year ago, it said in a statement.
The company’s Iron Bridge operations started production in August and achieved its first shipment of the high grade magnetite concentrate, the statement said. However, the performance of the raw water pipeline and some plant works “impacted availability” at during the quarter.
On Oct. 12, Fortescue said the ramp-up to full production capacity of 22 million tons per annum for Iron Bridge remained unchanged and was expected within 24 months.
The Iron Bridge Magnetite project is a joint venture between the company and Formosa Steel IB Pty Ltd.
The world’s no. 4 iron ore miner will be able to blend Iron Bridge’s high grade output with its typically lower grade ore.
“Challenge for Iron Bridge will be the pace of the ramp-up from here,” Citi analysts said in a research note.
The Perth-based miner also reiterated its iron ore shipments forecast for the current fiscal year to be between 192 million tons and 197 million tons, including about 5 million tons for the Iron Bridge project.
Shares of Fortescue fell about 1.3% to A$21.740, before trading 0.7% lower at 0042 GMT.
($1 = 1.5896 Australian dollars)
(By Archishma Iyer; Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Anil D’Silva and Christian Schmollinger)
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