Iron ore price, page-19392

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Cyclone Damien rattles Rio Tinto’s Pilbara assets

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Rio Tinto is still nervously running a damage assessment on its Pilbara iron ore assets in the wake of Cyclone Damien, as the Dampier Port reopened on Monday allowing the restart of shipping.

Winds up to 194km/h hit Karratha at the weekend, causing extensive local damage and closing the town’s airport, before heading south towards Rio’s Paraburdoo iron ore mine to dump heavy rains through the region.

A spokesman said the impact on production — aside from the port closure on Friday — would remain unclear for some days.

Rio’s operations bore the brunt of Cyclone Damien.



Port Hedland port reopened on Saturday, after a 25-hour interruption, with both Fortescue Metals and BHP saying their operations had restarted with some impact from heavy rainfall. Neither reported any significant damage to infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Citi analysts are tipping iron ore to fall to as low as $US70 a tonne in the near term as China’s industrial heartland reels from the coronavirus.

Metals and mining analyst Paul McTaggart said in a client note on Monday that Citi’s analysis suggested the seven most affected Chinese provinces, measured by number of infections, accounted for about 35-40 per cent of Chinese GDP, automotive output and new property starts.

“Even if production is cut as much as consumption, those metals in which China is a major net importer will see major increases in inventories ex-China over the coming weeks,” Mr McTaggart said.

“We urge near term on metals and bulk commodities as there are increasing signs that post-Chinese New Year economic activity restarts will be further delayed after February 10, or early restarts may trigger another round of virus outbreak leading to further large-scale quarantine.”