BHP Billiton Registers Record Q4 Output, Earnings
Global mining giant BHP Billiton said on Thursday that its iron ore output for the last quarter of fiscal year 2010-11 soared by 14 percent to 35.5 million metric tonnes, exceeding projections earlier set by market analysts.
In a statement, BHP said that it improved on the 31.2 million tonnes of iron ores posted last year while production of the company's major products of iron ore, coal and copper reached record highs in conjunction with the rising demands for its products mainly coming from China.
Such spectre, analysts said, pushed up the prices of major commodities in the region, further justifying BHP's injection of additional $7.4 billion in March this year to ramp up its iron ore capacity in Western Australia by 220 million tonnes over the next three years.
According to Bloomberg, the record output spiked up BHP stocks both in Sydney and London en route to its anticipated $22.3 billion net income for the last fiscal year, which should be revealed by net month.
Analysts are one in agreement that the mining sector will reap the benefits for years to come on the increasing demands from China, which has accelerated its full-throttle industrialisation following it assumption this year as the number two in world's biggest economies.
Apart from the boosts it saw on its mining operations, BHP reported glowing numbers too on its petroleum division, which surged by six percent to 43.2 million barrels of oil equivalent in the same quarter.
Those figures, Bloomberg said, were ably complemented by BHP's acquisition of Chesapeake Energy Corp for $4.75 billion, with the company's petrol business set to be boosted by the $12.1 billion purchase of Petrohawk Energy Corp.
The only dent on the otherwise sterling financial result furnished by BHP is the effect of the Queensland rains earlier this year, which led to the decline of the company's coking coal production, by at least 28 percent from the 7.92 million tonnes recorded in the third quarter.
BHP said in a statement that "the remnant effects of wet weather that persisted for much of the 2011 financial year continued to restrict our Queensland coal business ... and we continue to expect production, sales and unit costs to be impacted, to some extent, for the remainder of the 2011 calendar year."