RIO - The Simandou Project: Rio Tinto's Bet On Green Steel

2024-02-06 18:32:23 ET

Summary

• Rio Tinto is performing reasonably well in an environment of softening commodity prices.
• Iron ore continues to dominate the company’s performance.
• Simandou is Rio Tinto’s largest growth project, but it bears significant economic and political risks.

Rio Tinto Group ( RIO ) had to deal with headwinds from the commodity markets in 2023. Lower prices negatively impacted all product groups in the first half-year . Consequently, underlying EBITDA stood at $11.7B, down from $15.6B in 2022 while underlying earnings came in at $5.7B, 34% lower than last year.

Rio Tinto 2023 Half-Year Results

Source: company report.

Looking at the different product groups, the Aluminium and Minerals segment was hit particularly hard while Iron Ore reported comparatively solid results with EBITDA of only 6% and earnings of 9% lower, supported by higher production and shipment volumes. The second half will likely be better considering that the iron ore price showed an upward trend towards the end of the year....

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