Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO) said its revenue increased 28% year-on-year to US$787 million in the June quarter due to higher prices and an increase in sales. The company's underlying EBITDA was up 59% yoy to $372 million, and profit after tax was up 78% to $270 million.
The company's declared interim ordinary dividend was up 100% year-on-year to 6.6c.
Capital investment doubled to $114 million and its net debt reduced to $282 million.
"During the period we continued to benefit from strong pricing for our high-grade iron ore pellets, which helped deliver healthy cash flows," said Ferrexpo non-executive chairman Steve Lucas.
"This enabled us to allocate capital to further reduce debt, increase organic investment in our assets to drive medium term growth and declare a record interim dividend to shareholders."
Ferrexpo said the average realised FOB price increased 28% compared with the first half of last year, while the supply of pellets remained tight and there was a significant increase in the iron ore fines price.
There was a 5% yoy increase in pellet production, and the proportion of high-quality 65% iron ore pellet was 96% of total output. There was a 4% increase in sales volumes year on year.
C1 cash cost was $46 per tonne up $4.4 per tonne, reflecting modernisation of processing facilities and near-term organic growth opportunities to increase production by 1.5 million tonnes to 12Mt per year, Ferrexpo said.
There were no work-related fatalities in the first half, an improvement on the one fatality recorded for the same period last year.