Q2 iron ore shipment up 4.7, production up 3.6
Fullyear iron ore shipment guidance unchanged
Warns of labour shortage in Western Australia
Expects GudaiDarri to reach full capacity by 2023

July 15 Reuters Rio Tinto on Friday warned that COVID 19related labour shortages in the resourcerich state of Western Australia and rising inflation would impact its underlying earnings in the second half, knocking its stock lower.

The global miner reported misses across the board in its secondquarter update on output, but it maintained guidance on its fullyear iron ore shipments at 320335 million tonnes Mt as it expects its newly opened GudaiDarri mine in the Pilbara region to continue to raise production and reach full capacity by 2023.

Rising COVID cases at its Pilbara operations have led to elevated levels of unplanned absences, driving a 2 drop in shipments of the steelmaking commodity in the first half through June, the miner said. Adverse weather conditions also played spoilsport, it said.

For the second quarter, shipments rose 4.7 to 79.9 Mt, narrowly missing an RBC estimate of 80.2 Mt and a UBS estimate of 80 Mt.

As GudaiDarri continues to rampup, we expect increased production volumes and improved product mix in the second half, Rio said in a statement.

Shares of the world39;s biggest iron ore producer fell as much as 4.3 to A91.91, their lowest since November last year. The stock is down 3.4 this year, as of the last close, versus a 12 decline in the ASX 300…