A copper bonanza is fuelling a jump in revenue and profit at global miner BHP as the red metal’s price hits record highs and shortages of concentrates and other feedstocks in China crimp output from its smelters.
The resources giant reported a 9 per cent lift in full-year profit to $US9.8 billion ($13.8 billion) as revenues jumped 15 per cent to $US58.8 billion, the mining giant said in a statement to the ASX on Tuesday morning.
BHP will pay a final dividend of US99¢ per share, taking the total payout for the year to $US1.72 a share, up from $US1.10 in the previous year. The $US8.7 billion total payout for the year is the biggest dividend bonanza for BHP’s shareholders in four years.
“Copper is the engine that is driving BHP’s growth,” its newly appointed chief executive Brandon Craig said. “For the first time, copper contributed more than half our underlying [earnings] and generated significant free cash flow, which means our copper growth is self-funding.”
BHP managed to decrease unit costs across its operation by 6.1 per cent despite headwinds from inflation, higher diesel prices and global supply chain disruptions.
The company said it has a well-defined project pipeline of copper assets across Chile, Australia and Argentina that can potentially lift copper production up to 40 per cent by 2035.
At the same time. Chinese demand for iron ore, a key ingredient of steelmaking, remains resilient, BHP maintains. Its mines produced a record 265 million tonnes of ore, generating about $US14 billion in underlying earnings for the company.
“Looking ahead, we maintain our view that China’s real steel production will plateau around the one billion tonnes per annum level for the rest of the decade,” it said. But volumes of seaborne iron ore – the amount being shipped to China – are expected to rise as existing supply normalises and new capacity comes online, particularly from Rio Tinto’s giant new Simandou mine in Guinea.
“The global economy and commodity markets demonstrated considerable resilience despite a backdrop of heightened geopolitical tension, trade policy uncertainty and shifting monetary and fiscal settings,” the miner said.
The global lift in copper prices that is underpinning BHP’s growth is also being spurred by a slump in production from Chile’s state-owned miner Codelco, a top producer. Copper traders, worried about the possibility of US President Donald Trump slapping tariffs on copper, are also stockpiling the metal into US warehouses, pushing up demand.
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Simon Johanson is a business journalist at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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