Cliffs rallies as strong Q1 performance sees it back in the black
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The largest US iron-ore producer Cliffs Natural Resources rallied as much as 35% to $5.38 a share on the NYSE on Thursday, after swinging to a first-quarter profit amid sustained market improvement.
For the three months ended March 31, Cliffs recorded net income attributable to Cliffs' common shareholders of $108-million, or $0.62 a diluted share, compared with a net loss attributable to Cliffs' common shareholders of $773-million, or $4.26 a diluted share, recorded in the first quarter of 2015.
The latest period included a debt-restructuring and extinguishment gain of $179-million. Revenue dropped 32% to $305.5-million.
Analysts had expected a loss of $0.10 a share on revenue of $272-million.
The company benefited from an iron-ore price that had improved by about 44% so far this year. "The steel market in the US has started to show consistent signs of a real recovery, with a direct positive impact on our steel clients' order books and, consequently, a totally expected improvement in our clients' appetite for the pellets we supply them,” stated Cliffs chairperson, president and CEO Lourenco Goncalves.
The company had raised its 2016 capital spending guidance to $75-million, an increase of $25-million, to produce a specialised super-flux pellet at United Taconite.
Goncalves noted that a newly adopted supply discipline going forward by the two Australian majors BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, followed by a similar statement coming from their Brazilian peer Vale, had generated a more reasonable pricing environment for sinter feed fines in the international market for iron-ore, which continued to be short in lump ore and pellets.
Cliffs reduced its cost to produce iron-ore in the US by 26% to $48/t, the company said. Administrative costs were $28-million, down 3% from the first quarter last year.
Cliffs maintained its outlook to produce about 17.5-million tons of iron-ore in the US this year and 11.5-million tons in the Asia/Pacific region.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation