Rio Tinto’s , downsized dividend is less alarming than it looks. The $95 billion miner said on Wednesday it would be handing investors $2.67 a share as a mid-year payout , compared to $5.61 a year ago. Yet last year the price of iron ore, which accounts for the bulk of Rio’s earnings, shot to a record $225 a tonne, as economies bounced back from Covid-19. That boom is well and truly over, but despite slowdown fears it doesn’t mean 2022 is a bust.
, compared to $5.61 a year ago. Yet last year the price of iron ore, which accounts for the bulk of Rio’s earnings, shot to a record $225 a tonne, as economies bounced back from Covid-19. That boom is well and truly over, but despite slowdown fears it doesn’t mean 2022 is a bust.
In absolute terms, the $4.3 billion that Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm is handing over is still Rio’s second highest interim payout. And at 50% of underlying earnings, it’s in line with past practice. If he was really worried, Stausholm could have lowered the ratio. True, iron ore prices have halved in a year. But China, which accounts for over two-thirds of global demand, is under less inflation pressure than the United States or Europe.