Miner Rio Tinto has contingency plans to minimize impact from Canada rail stoppage

By Divya Rajagopal

TORONTO (Reuters) – Rio Tinto (NYSE:) expects the labor dispute between Canada’s two biggest railway companies and their workers to affect its ability to receive raw materials at several sites across Canada and ship products to customers in North America, the miner told Reuters on Thursday.

A Rio Tinto spokesperson added that the company has contingency plans to minimize the impact, such as trucking certain materials and products and increasing use of its own rail network.

Canada’s top two railroads, Canadian National Railway (TSX:) and Canadian Pacific (NYSE:) Kansas City locked out more than 9,000 unionized workers on Thursday, triggering an unprecedented rail stoppage that threatens to cause billions of dollars worth of economic damage and disrupt North American supply chains.

Rio Tinto’s Canadian operations include production of iron ore, aluminum and diamonds. Canadian operations contributed $800 million to the company’s total revenue of $26.8 billion in the first half of 2024.

The lockout will be mostly felt in the iron ore and aluminum businesses, the company said. Rio Tinto owns around 100 kilometres (62 miles) of railway for its aluminum operations and 400 kilometres of rail network for iron ore.