Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group announced today, January 30, that its iron ore shipments in the second quarter ending December 31 of the financial year 2013-14 totaled 28 million mt, indicating a year-on-year increase of 43 percent and a rise of eight percent over the previous quarter. Fortescue has said that it achieved record shipments for the given quarter despite the operational impacts of Tropical Cyclone Christine which caused a three-day shutdown at port facilities.
According to Fortescue, first iron ore production from the Kings development at Solomon was delivered in November 2013 with operations scheduled to ramp up to the targeted 155 million mt per year by the end of March 2014.
Total shipments by the end of the current financial year are estimated to be 127 million mt, towards the lower end of previous guidance, as a result of significant weather-related production impacts in January this year and material handling issues affecting the ramp up of ore processing facilities.