TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US miner Cliffs Natural Resources on Thursday reported a 48.4% drop in second-quarter earnings, saying lower iron-ore prices were mainly to blame for lower revenues.
Cliffs reported net income attributable to its common shareholders of $133-million, or $0.82 a share, in the quarter ended June 30, compared with $258-million, or $1.81 a share, in the same quarter of 2012, but still managed to beat analyst expectations.
Analysts had, on average, expected adjusted earnings of $0.61 a share on revenues of $1.41-billion.
Year-on-year consolidated revenues decreased by $91-million, or 6%, to $1.5-billion driven down by an 11% decrease in global seaborne iron-ore pricing to an average of $126/t for 62% iron-content fines products, including cost and freight to China.
The cash costs per ton rose across all of Cliffs' business segments.
Cliffs cut its sales forecast for its Eastern Canadian iron-ore segment, saying lower-than-expected recovery rates and throughput at its Bloom Lake mine, in Quebec, were to blame. The company now expected to sell between eight-million and nine-million tonnes of iron-ore in 2013, down from its previous forecast of nine-million to ten-million tonnes, and at higher-than-expected cash costs.
The company’s stock listed on the NYSE rose 4.19% in after-market trading to $18.38 apiece on Thursday evening.