Rio Tinto PLC (LON:RIO) has lowered its forecast for shipments of iron ore in 2017 by up to 10 million tonnes due to bad weather and ongoing work to modernise its rail haulage lines.
In its latest operational update, the FTSE 100-listed company said its iron ore shipments were expected to be 330mln tonnes, down from an earlier range of 330mln to 340mln tonnes.
READ: Rio Tinto cuts full year copper production guidance
The global miner said second-quarter iron ore shipments from Australia fell by 6% year-on-year to 77.7mln tonnes, slightly below analysts' forecasts as Rio Tinto transitions to a driverless train network.
It added that first-half shipments totalled 154.3mln, indicating the company expects to pick up shipments in the remaining two quarters.
Jean-Sebastien Jacques, Rio’s chief executive said: "Iron ore shipments were impacted by an acceleration in our rail maintenance programme following poor weather in the first quarter.
Coking coal production target cut
Among other minerals, Rio cut its full-year production target for hard coking coal to 7.2mln–7.8mln tonnes following a 14% fall in second-quarter production after a cyclone that swept across its collieries earlier this year.
It said that mined copper production recovered compared to the previous quarter, albeit still 6% lower than the second quarter of 2016, as the Escondida mine in Chile continued to ramp up following a labour strike.
Back in a first-quarter update in April, Rio had cut its 2017 guidance for copper production after first quarter operations were hit by the 43-day strike at the mine in Chile.
Rio had also said then that its iron ore production saw a better operational performance in the first quarter and there was some hope that this would follow through into the latest quarter.