Rio Tinto Group RIO announced that it completed industrial-scale pelletization and shaft furnace trials in China in partnership with China Baowu, utilizing Rio Tinto's Pilbara Blend iron ore. This successful move aids Rio Tinto and China Baowu’s understanding of lower-emission iron and steelmaking technologies.
Rio Tinto’s Focus on Lower Emissions
China Baowu is a leading steelmaker that has been collaborating with Rio Tinto for more than 50 years across project development, technological innovation and steelmaking research. Since 2020, the two companies have been working on a multi-step partnership focused on decarbonization.
During the trials at China Baowu’s Baoshan Iron & Steel Zhanjiang Steel Operations, the companies used a hydrogen-based shaft furnace to produce direct reduced iron from pellets containing one-third Pilbara Blend ore. Post that, the direct reduced iron was successfully converted to steel using an industrial-scale basic oxygen furnace.
This successful trial indicates that Pilbara Blend iron ore can be successfully processed in an industrial-scale direct reduction shaft furnace. This can potentially reduce emissions compared with traditional blast furnaces.
With this success, Rio Tinto and China Baowu advance their 2023 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which aims to discover technologies that reduce carbon emissions across the steel industry. The companies will now continue to work on other projects under the MoU.
RIO Stock's Price Performance
In the past year, shares of the company have soared 95.6% compared with the industry’s 61.9% surge.
Rio Tinto Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
RIO currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks from the basic materials space are Albemarle Corporation ALB, L.B. Foster Company FSTR and Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. ASM. ALB and FTSE carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present, and ASM carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Albemarle has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 74.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2026 earnings is pegged at $12.45 per share, indicating year-over-year growth from a loss of 79 cents. ALB shares have skyrocketed 186% so far this year.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for L.B. Foster’s current-year earnings is pegged at $1.74 per share, indicating a 152% year-over-year upsurge. FSTR has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 3.6%. L.B. Foster’s shares have gained 4.9% in a year.
Avino Silver has an average trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 125%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Avino Silver’s 2026 earnings is pegged at 39 cents per share, indicating 34.5% year-over-year growth. Its shares have soared 90.5% in a year.
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Rio Tinto PLC (RIO): Free Stock Analysis Report
Albemarle Corporation (ALB): Free Stock Analysis Report
L.B. Foster Company (FSTR): Free Stock Analysis Report
Avino Silver (ASM): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).