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Highlights:
- In the last six months, share price of Rio Tinto has dropped almost 14.23%, the yearly fall being 1%.
- Recently, the mining company has formed a joint venture with its customer, China Baowu Steel Group Co. for Western Range project development.
- To take ahead its sustainability commitments, the company has inked a deal with Volvo Group.
Share price of the Australian mining giant, Rio Tinto Limited (ASX:RIO) has been under significant pressure lately. In the past one month, the share price has dropped nearly 4% and registered a fall of 14.23% in the last six months. On a year-to-date basis, the share price has fallen 4.99%, while the yearly fall is 1.03%.
Noteworthy here is that, in the last one month, the broader market index, ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) has also declined by nearly 4%, and in six months, it has sunk by 6.49%. The index fell 10.32% on a year-to-date basis, and the yearly fall is 6.43%.
Following the broader market, ASX 50 marked a fall of nearly 4% in a month, circa 6% in six months and around 5% in the last 12 months. On a year-to-date basis, the index fell by nearly 9%.
Now moving to the benchmark index, ASX 200 Materials (INDEXASX:XMJ), Rio has underperformed its benchmark index in terms of yearly performance, as it recorded a gain of 6.37%. However, the index has dropped 3.27% in last one month.
Today, Rio shares closed 2.521% higher at AU$94.720 per share.
What’s happening in RIO?
On 14 September 2022, the Australian mining giant shared through ASX announcement that the group and China Baowu Steel Group Co. Ltd have agreed to form a joint venture (JV) to develop the Western range iron ore project, located in Pilbara, Western Australia. Reportedly, Baowu has 46% interest, and Rio has 54% interest in the project.
AU$2 billion will be invested in the project by the parties, and Rio’s share in the project is AU$1.3 billion.
Construction at the project is expected to commence at the beginning of 2023, and the production is expected to start in 2022, said Rio in a statement.
In addition to this, Baowu and Rio have also signed an iron ore sales agreement that covers a total maximum of 126.5 million tonnes of iron over at market prices for approximately 13 years.
On 13 September 2022, the company announced that it had inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Volvo Group to create a strategic partnership under which Rio would supply responsibly sourced low-carbon solutions and products to Volve Group. In addition to this, the companies would work towards decarbonising operations of Rio via piloting sustainable autonomous hauling solutions of Volvo Group.
This multi-materials partnership would empower Rio to progress sustainability commitments in its supply chains and operations. Also, it would assist Volvo Group in achieving its ambition toward a net-zero futurre.
