On February 19, Australian iron ore miner Fortescue announced its financial results for the first half of the financial year 2009-2010 (FY 2009-10) ended on December 31.
Fortescue's net profit of US$43 million in the first half of FY 2009-10 was down 94 percent compared with a net profit of US$760 million in the same period of FY 2008-09. When the same periods are compared, the company's sales revenues increased 15 percent from US$1.02 billion to US$1.19 billion. Fortecue's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of US$426 million in the first half of FY 2009-10 was down 11 percent from US$479 million in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
Fortescue mined 19.46 million mt in the first half of FY 2009-10, which was up 25 percent compared with 15.56 million mt in the same period of FY 2008-09. When the same periods are compared, the amount of iron ore shipped by the company was up 29 percent from 13.16 million mt to 18.61 million mt.
The Australian miner noted in its statement that the huge drop in the company's net profit was because of a loan revaluation, foreign exchange losses and lower prices.