BHP Billiton, the biggest miner in the world, said earlier this week that the global prime material market is weakening due to the increasing supply and also showed its moderate outlook of the steel demand in Asia.
The company’s chairman Jacques Nasser said in the company’s report for fiscal year 2013 that they keep positive long term vision because of the increasing wealth, population and urbanization generating demand of prime materials in Asia.
However, he expressed his worry of increased supply of prime materials is downward pressure in many markets; he expected this trend to continue in short term only.
The company’s net profit fell by 30% in fiscal year 2013, according to the report.
Most of the profit came from its divisions of iron ore, oil and copper, although each one reported lower profitability over the previous year.
