Cliffs Natural Reports 54% Drop in Revenue
January 27 2016 - 9:50AM
Dow Jones News
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. said its fourth-quarter revenue
slumped 54% amid lower production and low iron-ore prices.
The iron-ore miner also posted a narrower loss for the latest
quarter, helped by lower production costs and a big write-down in
the year-ago period.
Shares of Cliffs, down 78% over the past year, fell 4.6% to
$1.45 in recent premarket trading as revenue missed analyst
expectations.
Cliffs also projected 2016 capital expenditures of $50 million,
down from $83 million last year, mostly owing to the divestiture of
its remaining coal assets and cost controls in its U.S. iron-ore
business.
For the three month period ended Dec. 31, Cliffs said revenue
dropped to $476 million from $1.03 billion a year earlier. Analysts
polled by Thomson Reuters expected revenue of $496 million.
The Cleveland-based company has been hurt by weak demand from
steelmakers, which have been grappling with low prices amid a glut
of supply and a high level of less expensive imports.
Cliffs, one of the country's biggest mining companies, has
continued to streamline its operations with the hope that iron-ore
prices will recover in time to stave off bankruptcy. The company in
November said it would temporarily idle iron-ore pellet production
at its Northshore mining operation in Minnesota.
Overall, Cliffs Natural reported a loss of $60.3 million, or 39
cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $1.29 billion,
or $7.19 a share. Excluding asset write-downs and other items, the
per-share loss from continuing operations was 14 cents, compared
with a year-earlier loss from continuing operations of $4.02.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share loss of 26
cents.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 27, 2016 09:35 ET (14:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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