Cleveland, Ohio-based mining company Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. announced its Q4 and fiscal 2011 earnings on Wednesday. Full-year earnings reached $6.8 billion--a 45 percent increase from 2010-while net income increased from $1 billion in 2010 to $1.6 billion during 2011.
Joseph Carrabba, Cliffs' chairman, president and chief executive officer, said, "Cliffs delivered an exceptional performance in 2011, a year highlighted with the transformational acquisition of Consolidated Thompson. With a significant organic pipeline of growth in both iron ore and metallurgical coal, Cliffs is well positioned for continued momentum in 2012 and beyond."
Revenues for Q4 of fiscal 2011 reached $1.7 billion--a 17 percent increase from $1.4 billion in revenues posted for Q4 of fiscal 2010. The surge can be attributed to higher sales volumes and increased exposure to seaborne market pricing. The consolidated sales margin also increased to $496 million from $483 million in Q4 of fiscal 2010, while the net income decreased by 52 percent to $185 million.
During Q4, US iron ore pellet sales volume was 7.8 million tons, a 20 percent increase from the 6.5 million tons sold in the Q4 of fiscal 2010. US iron ore revenue per ton also increased during Q4 by 20 percent to $120.37 over $99.46 in Q4 of fiscal 2010. The increase can be attributed to stronger year-over-year iron ore pricing driven by pricing mechanisms contained in certain supply contracts that provide increased exposure to more favorable seaborne market pricing.
Eastern Canadian iron ore also had a strong Q4 showing with sales volume increasing by 70 percent to 1.9 million tons. The large increase can be attributed to the approximately 1.2 million tons of incremental iron ore concentrate sales volume from the Bloom Lake Mine. Revenues per ton during Q4 of fiscal 2011 were $123.83--an 18 percent decrease from $151.52 in Q4 of fiscal 2010.
Another area with a positive Q4 was North American coal, which saw sales volume increase from 928,000 tons to 988,000 in 2011. The increase was driven by significantly higher sales and production volumes from Pinnacle Mine. During Q4, there was also an increase in revenues per ton by 11 percent from $112.50 during Q4 in fiscal 2010 to $125.10 in fiscal 2011.