BHP BILLITON, the world’s biggest miner, reported a rare fall in earnings yesterday, hurt by labour battles and weaker commodity prices.
The result showed it was still in a different league from its would-be rival, Glencore-Xstrata.
Despite the 6 per cent drop in half-year profit to $9.94 billion, BHP made more cash profit in six months than the $90 billion marriage of commodities trader Glencore and miner Xstrata would have made in all of 2011.
That was largely due to BHP’s hugely profitable iron ore business, a strength it shares with its main rival, Rio Tinto, which separately unveiled a $3.4 billion expansion of its Australian iron ore mines.
“The capacity for this organisation to redirect, adapt and steer things while keeping the overall cash investment and cash generated at relatively stable levels, we believe, is unparalleled in the industry,” BHP’s chief executive Marius Kloppers told analysts in a results briefing.
BHP’s low cost base and diverse range of high-quality, long-life assets have so far outweighed market concerns over the global economic outlook. – (Reuters)
