{"id":96042,"date":"2026-08-03T04:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/96042\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T04:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:37:10","slug":"how-rio-tinto-fortescue-and-bhp-shares-stacked-up-in-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/96042\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rio Tinto, Fortescue and BHP shares stacked up in July"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO<\/a>), Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG<\/a>) and BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP<\/a>) shares all underperformed the 2.3% gains posted by the S&P\/ASX 200 Index\u00a0(ASX: XJO) in July.<\/p>\n

Of the three ASX 200 mining stocks, only BHP managed to finish the month just past in the green.<\/p>\n

On 30 June, BHP shares closed trading for $59.40. When the closing bell sounded on 31 July, shares were changing hands for $60.31, up 1.5% for the month.<\/p>\n

Rio Tinto shares went the other direction. Rio Tinto shares closed June at $172.51 and finished out July trading for $170.57 each, down 1.1%.<\/p>\n

And Fortescue shares trailed the pack in July, closing the month down 3.3% to trade for $18.51 apiece.<\/p>\n

Looking at the miners’ top two revenue earners, the iron ore price traded in a pretty steady range of around US$98 per tonne in July. Meanwhile, the copper price increased by 3.5% to end the month at US$13,791 per tonne, according to data<\/a> from Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

All three ASX 200 mining stocks also reported quarterly or half-year results in July.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Image source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

BHP shares slide on FY 2027 copper guidance<\/p>\n

BHP released its June quarter (Q4 FY 2026) update<\/a> on 16 July.<\/p>\n

Over the three-month period, the mining giant produced 491,900 tonnes of copper, up 3% quarter on quarter. This brought full-year copper production to 1.95 million tonnes, down 3% year-on-year.\u00a0 But that production dip was more than offset by a 35% increase in the average realised price the company received for the red metal, which climbed to US$5.74 per pound in FY 2026.<\/p>\n

On the iron ore front, BHP produced 264.7 million tonnes of the industrial metal in FY 2026, up 1% from FY 2025.<\/p>\n

BHP shares closed down 2.3% on the day, however, partly pressured by FY 2027 copper guidance.<\/p>\n

In the financial year ahead, the miner expects to produce 1.65 million to 1.8 million tonnes of copper and 260 million to 272 million tonnes of iron ore.<\/p>\n

The lower copper production was said to predominantly relate to the forecast grade decline at BHP’s Escondida copper mine.<\/p>\n

Fortescue shares slip Iron Bridge impairment<\/p>\n

Fortescue shares closed down 1.9% on 31 July following the release of the miner’s own June quarter production\u00a0update<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like BHP shares, Fortescue enjoyed a broadly strong year, reporting all-time high total iron ore shipments of 201.3 million tonnes for FY 2026, up 1% year on year. And management provided FY 2027 shipment guidance in the range of 197 million tonnes to 207 million tonnes.<\/p>\n

But investors were reaching for the sell buttons after the company reported that it expects to recognise a non-cash impairment charge of US$750 million before tax on its Iron Bridge magnetite project.<\/p>\n

Fortescue said, “The carrying value assessment for Iron Bridge considers the revised ramp-up schedule and a range of production scenarios, including the nameplate capacity of 22Mt.”<\/p>\n

Rio Tinto shares jump on earnings lift<\/p>\n

Rio Tinto reported its half-year (H1 2026) results<\/a> on 29 July.<\/p>\n

Unlike Fortescue and BHP shares, Rio Tinto shares jumped 3.7% on the day of the release.<\/p>\n

Highlights for the half-year included a 15% increase in revenue to US$31.0 billion. Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped by 28% to US$14.8 billion.<\/p>\n

With Rio Tinto achieving a 47% year-on-year increase in profit after tax attributable to US$6.7 billion, management declared a fully franked interim dividend of AU$3.072 per share, up 38.4%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO), Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) and BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares all underperformed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20718],"tags":[12991,23473],"class_list":["post-96042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rio-tinto","tag-rio-tinto","tag-trending"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117029728740498149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}