Investors will closely watch the Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) share price today following the release of the company's FY24 full-year results.
Shares in the mining giant are sitting at $18.63 ahead of the opening bell.
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Spotlight on Fortescue share price amid results
Here are the key figures from Fortescue's FY24 results:
- Ore mined down 1% to 216.9 million wet metric tonnes
- Ore processed down 1% to 189.9 million wet metric tonnes
- Revenue up 8% to US$18,220 million
- Net profit after tax (NPAT) up 18% to US$5,664 million
- Underlying earnings per share up 3% to US$1.85 per share
- Final fully franked dividend of 89 AUD cents per share, down 11% year-on-year
What else happened in FY24?
Fortescue has delivered its third-highest annual earnings in its history. Part of the solid result was fuelled by an increase in the average hematite — a high iron-containing compound — price rising 8% to US$103 per dry metric tonne.
On the cost side, hematite C1 costs were US$18.24 per wet metric tonne, up 4% from the prior year. The increasing costs were predominantly from higher labour rates and mine plan-driven cost escalation. Still, Fortescue's FY24 hematite C1 cost is 'industry-leading'.
As shown below, the Fortescue share price has closely tracked the price of the steel-making commodity over the past 12 months. Fortunately, the price of iron ore has been relatively stable, avoiding any significant drawdowns.
Over in the energy side of Fortescue, the company proceeded to a final investment decision for its first energy projects in FY24. This milestone was further explained by Fortescue Energy CEO Mark Hutchinson, stating:
We turned the soil to launch Arizona Hydrogen, our green hydrogen project in the United States and started work on Gladstone PEM50, a 50MW green hydrogen project utilising Fortescue's own electrolyser technology. Our board has also agreed to fast-track two more projects, with Holmaneset in Norway and Pecém in Brazil progressing to feasibility phase.
Fortescue's first production of liquid green hydrogen is expected in 2026.
What did management say?
FY24 involved multiple milestones for the Perth-based mining company. Fortescue Metals CEO Dino Otranto mentioned a few of the achievements during the period:
We celebrated a number of significant milestones including first ore from the Flying Fish and Hall Hub deposits as well as the commissioning of our gaseous and liquid hydrogen plant which is the largest of its kind on a mine site in Australia. We will use the hydrogen from this plant for our Green Metal Project, which we commenced works on earlier this month.
All of the year's work was completed with the company's lowest-ever total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) for Fortescue Metals of 1.3 — for reference, the TRIFR was 1.8 in FY23.
What's next for Fortescue?
Fortescue was comfortable enough to supply visibility on a few key figures for FY25. As per the release, the metals and energy company forecasts the following:
- Iron ore shipments between 190 million tonnes and 200 million tonnes
- Between 5 million tonnes and 9 million tonnes of shipments from Iron Bridge
- Hematite C1 cost between US$18.50 and US$19.75 per wet metric tonne
- Capital expenditure between US$3.2 billion and US$3.8 billion for Fortescue Metals
- Fortescue Energy capital expenditure of approximately US$500 million
Fortescue's share price has fallen 6% over the past year, while the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has increased 12.7% over the same period.
