SYDNEY, June 29, 2026, 02:05 AEST
- Fortescue closed at A$19.07, adding 0.69% on Friday. The stock has dropped 4.51% in the past week.
- The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) dropped 0.73% last week, a narrower decline than Fortescue’s.
- Iron ore hovered just above US$100 a tonne after falling 8.18% this month, leaving attention on Fortescue’s June-quarter margins.
- Fortescue is set to release its production report for the June quarter on July 31.
Fortescue Ltd ASX:FMG finished Friday at A$19.07, gaining 0.69%, with volume at 4.81 million shares. Market cap sat at A$58.72 billion, according to Google Finance. The ASX cash market hadn’t opened yet when this article was filed. ASX standard hours are 09:59:45 to 16:00 Sydney time.
Fortescue is still down 4.51% for the week to A$19.97, even after Friday’s rebound. The S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.73% over the week and finished at 8,764.20, dropping from 8,828.70 last Friday.
The gap stands out since iron ore barely moved from Monday to Friday. Iron ore 62% CFR futures were at US$100.33 on Friday, off just a bit from US$100.78 Monday. The drop showed up across the month instead, with iron ore falling 8.18%.
The next focus for the stock is on realised price and product mix as well as tonnes. In the March quarter, Fortescue shipped 46.4 million wet metric tonnes from its hematite operations, with a realised price of US$92 per dry metric tonne, which was 89% of the average Platts 61% CFR index. Iron Bridge concentrate brought in a realised price of US$122 per dry metric tonne, or 117% of the same 61% index, but Iron Bridge’s shipments were just 2.0 million wet metric tonnes.
Fortescue’s data shows the premium product remains a tiny part of its sales. Iron Bridge accounted for just 4% of the product mix in the March quarter, with Fortescue Blend at 35%. Most shipments are still hematite products.
Iron ore prices “have again been resilient,” Fortescue director of corporate finance Andrew Driscoll said on the April production call. Driscoll said demand for the company’s products remains strong. He noted the quarter hit by a cyclone at Iron Bridge is now part of a wider portfolio review for hematite and magnetite output.
Fortescue left its FY26 total shipment outlook at 195 million to 205 million tonnes. But Iron Bridge guidance is now 9 million to 10 million tonnes, down from 10 million to 12 million tonnes, after Tropical Cyclones Mitchell and Narelle disrupted production and outload in the March quarter. Guidance for Hematite C1 unit costs was kept at US$17.50 to US$18.50 per wet metric tonne.
Costs are another pressure. Fortescue said every one-cent shift in AUD/USD moves hematite C1 unit cost by around US$0.16 per wet metric tonne for the year. A US$10 swing in Brent crude shifts the cost by about US$0.20 per wet metric tonne.
Apple Paget, Fortescue’s group CFO, said on the April call that diesel price changes would show up with a lag. “We’re not going to see much in the March quarter, but we will see the impact of that around the middle of this current quarter,” she told analysts.
ASX Materials Index opens up after six-day slide; iron ore hits low
The sector was weak at the end of the week. MarketIndex said Friday the ASX Materials Index started higher after dropping 9.8% over six sessions. Singapore iron ore futures touched US$96.95 a tonne during the day, the lowest since February.
Fortescue came into the week with non-commodity risk after Reuters said Thursday the miner was facing a class action over alleged sexual harassment at remote mining sites. Dino Otranto, Fortescue’s CEO for metals and operations, told Reuters the claims were “extremely serious” and said the company had spent on infrastructure and new initiatives to help workers feel safe and respected. Reuters
Next up for company releases is the June 2026 quarterly production report due July 31. FY26 full-year results come out August 24.
