FLASH: Rio Tinto's iron ore shipments to China hit 4 bln t milestone

As of July 19, Australian iron ore mining giant Rio Tinto has shipped four billion tonnes of iron ore from its Pilbara operations in Western Australia to China ever since the shipment started in 1973, according to Rio Tinto's latest news release.

Four billion tonnes of iron ore is sufficient to produce the steel needed for about 45,000 Sydney Harbour Bridges, or more than 23,000 Beijing National Stadiums (Bird's Nest), Rio Tinto noted.

Over the past 51 years, Rio Tinto has formed a steady partnership with the world's largest iron ore consumer by supplying some 250 million tonnes of iron ore to the country each year.

The latest ore shipment from the miner, loaded at Dampier Port on Friday, was bound for China Baowu Steel Group, the world's top steel producer, the release said.

The cooperation between Rio Tinto and China Baowu is actually more than the trading of the critical steelmaking material, Mysteel Global learned. The two companies also agreed to establish a joint venture to develop Western Range iron ore mine in the Pilbara in September 2022. The mine, designed with an annual capacity of 25 million tonnes of iron ore, is expected to commence production in 2025.

Written by Irene Zhuang, zhuangailing@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com