The world's biggest miner, BHP Billiton, has reported a surge in fourth-quarter production volumes, with another record for iron ore.
BHP said half-year production records were set for petroleum and iron ore. Nickel and zinc also had record half-year production runs.
BHP shares rose 10 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to close at $43.41, after jumping as much as 1.5 per cent in early trading.
Iron ore production jumped 11 per cent to 32.449 million tonnes for the three months to December from a year earlier, Melbourne-based BHP said in a statement.
That took production for the half year to 62.6 million tonnes, also a record figure.
''Over the next three to five years, you would be very confident that the steel market should grow,'' said Tim Schroeders, who helps manage $1.2 billion at Pengana Capital in Melbourne, including BHP. He expects its earnings estimates to be upgraded about 5 per cent. ''They met expectations.''
Petroleum production also recorded another half-year production record, according to BHP.Production jumped 16 per cent to 38.36 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, helping the half-year number to jump 17 per cent to 79.57 million boe.
BHP said there had been strong price recovery ''across the commodity suite'', driven by demand from China and restocking in the developed world.
Looking ahead, the company said the speed of recovery in developed economies remained uncertain, especially given withdrawal of government stimulus, while China's moves to control loan growth could have an effect on demand.
''Consequently, we expect some degree of volatility in the short term outlook for commodities,'' BHP said.
In its iron ore operations, the rapid growth project 4 (RGP4) ramp up was continuing in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, and the miner expected to reach full capacity by the end of calendar 2011.
RGP4 already had helped achieve better use of rail and port infrastructure, which had helped in the record half-year production.
Record petroleum
Petroleum production had jumped to a record due to the ramp up of BHP's Shenzi field, and a strong performance from Atlantis, both of which are in the Gulf of Mexico.
There were no weather-related interruptions to production.
Production declined slightly from the September quarter as a result of lower seasonal demand in eastern Australia and planned downtime at Gulf of Mexico non-operational assets, BHP said.
Nickel, Zinc surge
Nickel production in the fourth quarter jumped 20 per cent to a record 49,000 tonnes on the performance of BHP's Australian Nickel West operations.
BHP produced 84,400 tonnes in the December half year, a 45 per cent surge from the prior corresponding half.
Zinc production also surged 58 per cent in the fourth quarter to 59,835 tonnes due to higher mining grades. Production jumped 33 per cent to 106,260 half on half.
Copper production slipped 10 per cent to 555,000 for the half year, mainly due to the Clark Shaft outage at Olympic Dam in South Australia, as well as industrial action in Spence, in Chile.
These were offset partly by stronger production at Escondida, also in Chile.Production of alumina rose one per cent to 1.78 million tonnes and aluminium had the same percentage gain to 626,000 tonnes, half on half.
Lead production was flat half on half, at 106,260 tonnes, silver production rose three per cent to 22,458 ounces and uranium production slipped 25 per cent to 1,478 tonnes.
Diamond production grew 13 per cent to 1.54 million carats, half on half.
Coal production slipped, with metallurgical coal falling five per cent to 18.3 million tonnes half on half because of planned maintenance at Queensland Coal and longwall moves at Illawarra Coal.
Despite the lower production, the company shipped record quantities of the fuel, which is used to make steel, in response to stronger demand.
Energy coal production slipped one per cent to 35.5 million tonnes half on half as its Cerrejon project in Columbia faced lower demand, New Mexico had planned outages and BHP's South African mines had unplanned maintenance and weather interruptions.
Manganese ore production fell 17 per cent half on half to 2.69 million tonnes while manganese alloy production plunged 49 per cent to 194,000 tonnes.
Source: Melbourne Age
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