On February 18, Australian iron ore miner Fortescue announced its financial results for the first half ended on December 31 of the financial year 2010-11.
Fortescue's net profit of US314 million in the first fiscal half was up 630 percent compared with a net profit of US$43 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year. When the same periods are compared, the company's sales revenues increased 114 percent from US$1.18 billion to US$2.53 billion. Fortecue's underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of US$1.32 billion in the first fiscal half was up 246 percent from US$380 million in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
Fortescue mined 22.1 million mt in the first half, which was up 14 percent compared with the first half of the previous financial year. When the same periods are compared, the amount of iron ore shipped by the company, including third party product, was up eight percent to 20.86 million mt.
Fortescue's chief executive officer Andrew Forrest said, "The past six months have seen Fortescue take major steps in the realisation of its Pilbara vision. Strong production, board approval for new mining operations and expanded port and rail systems together with the refinance of the original project debt, lay the foundations for an exciting future. All this was done within a trading environment of strong demand for our product in a strengthening iron ore market - underpinning our expansion plans and enabling Fortescue to make a maiden dividend payment."
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, Fortescue's iron ore operations at Christmas Creek, which produced 40 million mt of iron ore a year earlier, is soon expected to reach 55 million mt, and with further expansion will reach 95 million mt of iron ore.
As also previously disclosed, Fortescue has approved plans to expand its annual iron ore production from 55 million mt to 155 million mt, through an investment of US$8.4 billion. Preparatory work still continues for the project.