BHP profit soars to record highs

Sydney - Global mining giant BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] said Wednesday it almost doubled its full-year profit to a mammoth S$23.6bn, citing robust demand from China and India and global shortages for the record income.

BHP said the performance, which included unprecedented revenues of $71.7bn - up 36% year-on-year - and record output in four key commodities, including iron ore, reflected strong growth in developing economies.

Its net profit over the year to June 30 was up 86% from the previous 12 months, when BHP and other mining giants successfully fought off a government attempt to impose a windfall tax on their booming profits.

"Robust demand, industry-wide cost pressures and persistent supply-side constraints continued to support the fundamentals for the majority of BHP Billiton’s core commodities," the Anglo-Australian miner said.

"Another strong year of growth in Chinese crude steel production ensured steelmaking material prices were the major contributing factor to the $17.2bn price-related increase in underlying earnings."

BHP, the world's biggest miner, said commodities had remained "the asset of choice" in 2011 and it expected robust demand in the short and medium term, despite some monetary policy tightening in India and China.

"Over the past decade, emerging economies have contributed more to global growth than the developed world and we expect their share to expand as the process of urbanisation and industrialisation continues," the company said.

BHP said its investment in its flagship Australian iron-ore operations through the depths of the global financial crisis had delivered an 11th consecutive year of production growth "as prices continued to test new highs".

Record production was also achieved at its Australian thermal coal operations, and was accompanied by a 13% boost in output in South Africa, adding $177m to earnings.