Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh has said at the company's annual general meeting that in 2013 Rio Tinto will focus on four key areas; reducing costs and improving performance at all its operations, delivering approved growth projects, strengthening capital allocation and discipline, and divesting assets that are not core to the company's strategy. Rio Tinto expects cumulative cost savings of US$5 billion over the next two years, compared to 2012.
Mr. Walsh said that Rio Tinto's iron ore business delivered record production and shipments in 2012, following a series of debottlenecking and productivity improvements with minimal capital expenditure. He added that this achievement is even more remarkable given the major expansion program that is currently being implemented in its Pilbara iron ore operations to ramp up capacity to 360 million mt per year.
In 2012, Rio Tinto's total capital expenditure was US$17.4 billion, which is likely to be the company's peak year of investment. The company has invested nearly US$10 billion in Australia, including the expansion of its Pilbara iron ore operations.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, in the first quarter of the current year Rio Tinto's global iron ore production increased by four percent year on year to 61.2 million mt, setting a new first quarter record. In the given quarter, the company's iron ore shipments amounted to 57.3 million mt, up seven percent year on year.