Fortescue weathers the storm

Fortescue has shown resilience through a challenging March 2025 quarter, delivering strong results despite significant weather disruptions.

The company shipped 46.1 million tonnes (Mt) of iron ore during the quarter, contributing to record nine-month shipments of 143.2Mt.

While shipments were impacted by several weather events, causing Port Hedland to close for five days, the company was still able to ship six per cent more iron ore than in the third quarter of the 2023–24 financial year (FY24).

“We achieved another solid quarterly production result, shipping 46.1 million tonnes of iron ore while maintaining our outstanding safety performance,” Fortescue Metals chief executive officer Dino Otranto said.

“This was a particularly impressive achievement, as the team safely and effectively navigated several significant weather events in the quarter.”

Iron Bridge was able to ship 1.5Mt in the quarter, with the mine’s supply chain able to end the period with a healthy run of mine and port stock position after being impacted by Tropical Cyclone Zelia.

Among the quarter’s other highlights was Fortescue’s successful $254 million acquisition of Red Hawk Mining, which brings the Blacksmith iron ore project into the company’s life of mine plan.

“During the quarter, we also completed the acquisition of Red Hawk Mining which supports our strategy to continually optimise our iron ore operations in the Pilbara, giving us the flexibility to enhance our future mine plan,” Otranto said.

Fortescue lowered its hematite C1 cost by four per cent quarter-on-quarter to $US17.53/wet metric tonne (wmt).

The company ended the quarter with a strong cash balance of $US3.3 billion and net debt of $US2.1 billion, after paying an interim dividend of $US1 billion and investing a further $US1 billion into capital projects.

Fortescue also advanced its decarbonisation efforts, with Fortescue Zero successfully delivering its first T 264 power system to Liebherr.