Dec. 7, 2017 - Rio Tinto believes the Chinese economy could slow over the next six months and the miner will temporarily close some Australian iron ore mines over the Christmas break as part of its focus on "value over volume".
Rio Tinto chief Jean-Sebastien Jacques was shooting from the hip in Sydney on Monday. Brendon Thorne
But chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques remained upbeat on the longer-term outlook for the mining sector, suggesting the company was willing to enter new commodities through mergers and acquisitions and was well positioned to capitalise on a "turning point" in aluminium markets.
Addressing investors in Sydney on Monday after news that board member Simon Thompson would succeed Jan du Plessis as chairman, Rio said it had identified $US1.5 billion of the $US5 billion in productivity savings it hopes to deliver over the next five years.
While that process is ahead of schedule, Mr Jacques was unusually bearish about the near-term outlook for the Chinese economy, which delivered more than 42 per cent of Rio's revenues in 2016.
"We could see a slowdown over the next six months, in particular construction, infrastructure and automotive demand growth may weaken," he said.
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