Rio Tinto Limited
(ASX:RIO) has had a solid third quarter performance with record iron ore production.
Global iron ore production is up 12 per cent on the same period last year with shipments up 15 per cent. Copper also produced strong results with Rio increasing its copper guidance for the year to 615,000 tonnes, up from 585,000 tonnes.
Production of hard coking coal was in line with 2013 while thermal and semi-soft coal was down just three per cent despite the loss of production from the Clermont mine divested earlier this year.
Analysts are tipping that Rio could eclipse it’s it iron ore production target this year and they say Rio remains the most competitive low cost producer.
Rio Tinto produced a full year net profit of $4.54 billion for the year ended 30th June 2014.
