Jan 21 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto RIO.AX, RIO.L reported a 7% rise in its fourth-quarter iron ore shipments on Wednesday, aided by record quarterly production from Pilbara operations and strong rail and port outload performance.
The world's largest producer of iron ore shipped 91.3 million tonnes (Mt) of the steel-making commodity from its Pilbara operations in the three months ended December 31, compared with 85.7 Mt shipped last year.
That exceeded Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 88.2 Mt.
(Reporting by Himanshi Akhand and Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru)
((Roshan.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com;))