China-Australia trade: iron ore miner Fortescue set earnings, shipment records in past financial year
- Since prices hit an all-time high of more than US$230 a tonne in May, prices for the steelmaking ingredient have fallen with Chinese authorities curbing output
- Beijing blocked several goods amid its protracted geopolitical conflict with Canberra, but iron ore shipments are still welcomed with open arms
China’s ravenous appetite for iron ore has helped Australian miner Fortescue double its profits and achieve record shipments while making Australian shareholders and governments wealthier with a bumper dividend and royalty payouts.
In its 2020-21 financial year results released on Monday, Fortescue said it had more than doubled its net profits to US$10.3 billion and unveiled total dividends of about US$8 billion.
The miner, which ships almost all of its iron ore to China, said it reached its “highest-ever annual shipments of 182.2 million tonnes” of iron ore and achieved “earnings and operating cash flow surpassing any year in its history”.
In late July, during Fortescue’s April-June quarter production update, CEO Elizabeth Gaines warned that it was monitoring the Chinese market closely as steel margins and prices had been volatile, adding that there was “policy uncertainty relating to production curtailments”.
While China and Australia have one of the Asia-Pacific region’s most envied trade partnerships – valued at more than A$250 billion (US$183 billion) a year, according to Australian trade figures – the two have been locked in a geopolitical conflict for more than 16 months.
But iron ore, which accounts for about a third of the total trade value, has been spared any trade disruptions, as evidenced by the strong results of Australian mining companies in the current 2020-21 financial year reporting season.