Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO) production was broadly OK and showed volume growth year-on-year from stockmarket analyst Macquarie Research Equities.

Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO): Production OK, Growth to Come

Pick of the Diversifieds — 1Q07 production was broadly OK and showed volume growth year-on-year, but was adversely affected by seasonal weather and maintenance, and was generally weaker than the previous quarter. Citigroup Investment Research (CIR) maintains its Buy recommendation and A$94/share target price with the company well setup for a solid year of volume growth across its commodity suite.

1Q07 — Production was generally in-line with CIRs estimates, but affected by the well flagged weather related issues in iron ore and uranium, port congestion issues at Newcastle, and a severe snow storm at Kennecott Energy. There were also a number of scheduled major shut downs and the impact of an ongoing strike at IOC.

Year-on-Year Volume Growth — The company delivered iron ore volume growth of 12% yoy. Aluminium production rose 2% compared to the first quarter of 2006. Hard coking coal increased by 28% compared to the first quarter of

2006, and was coupled with improved market conditions