The surge in Chinese iron ore imports last November and December also helped Fortescue Metals shipped a record 14.77 million tonnes of ore in the December quarter, beating its own guidance.
Australia’s third largest iron ore producer yesterday revealed that iron ore shipments jumped 19% in the quarter from the 12.2 million tonnes exported in the three months to September.
Much of the increase came from stocks because Fortescue said production rose by just 1% in the quarter to 16.01 million tonnes.
The company had previously provided December quarter production guidance of 13.5-14 million tonnes.
The total shipment figure includes ore transported by Fortescue from other mining companies.
The news, and the latest, mostly good, Chinese economic data, helped the company’s shares rise by around 4% to $4.80 yesterday.
Fortescue said it cut production costs in the December quarter by 7 per cent to $US46.43 ($A45.15) a wet metric tonne of iron ore, from $US49.78 ($A48.41) in the September quarter.
And, as expected, prices fell sharply, down to around $US122 ($A118.65) per dry metric tonne, from $US160 ($A155.60) in the previous quarter.
They have since recovered to around $US145 a dry tonne, as of Monday this week in the Chinese market.
Fortescue said production will run at a planned 55 million tonne a year rate in the March quarter.
The company also said that exploration success at Nyidinghu adds 1 billion tonnes of resource to Fortescue’s portfolio; while committed contracts for expansion works rose by US$1.3 billion to US$5.6 billion and the expansion debt capital raising of $1.5 billion was completed with cash on hand at quarter’s end of US$2.5 billion.
Fortescue shares ended up nearly 4% or 18c at $4.80.
