Fortescue Metals profit soars on iron pricing, Power strong on outlook

Fortescue Metals Group's full-year profit soared 76 per cecrusher parts in south africant on the rising price and demand of iron ore, as the miner flagged strong support from Chinese customers despite a "cooling off" in the market.

The Pilbara miner today released its annual results, which showed that net profit rose to $US1.02 billion ($987 million), from $US580.9m a year earlier. "This has been an outstanding result for Fortescue this year," chief executive Nev Power said on a media call. "We are extremely proud of the result and tremendous achievement of our people and look forward to continuing to strengthen this year and grow our production performance." Fortescue shares recovered by mid-afternoon to be 3.8 per cent down at $5.82, after having fallen as sharply as 4.6 per cent earlier. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 2.8 per cent. Morningstar analyst Mathew Hodge said that while underlying profit more than doubled on higher iron ore prices, cash costs were rising sharply. "Low cash costs are key to FMG’s competitive advantage, so continued cost pressures and...