Australian mining company BHP Billiton has announced its financial results for the year ended June 30 this year.
According to the company's financial statement, BHP Billiton has posted a net profit of US$13.83 billion for the financial year 2013-14, up 23.2 percent, while the company's revenue increased by 1.9 percent year on year to US$67.2 billion.
BHP Billiton's Western Australia iron ore production increased to 225 million mt in the financial year 2013-14, represents a fourteenth consecutive annual record and was underpinned by the early commissioning of Jimblebar and productivity agenda, which raised the capacity of the company's integrated supply chain. In the current financial year, the Western Australia iron ore production is expected to increase by a further 20 million mt to 245 million mt.
According to BHP Billiton, the supply of steelmaking raw materials has grown more quickly than demand. As predicted, lower-cost seaborne iron ore supply is increasingly displacing higher-cost Chinese domestic production. As this trend continues, the cost curve is likely to flatten as high-cost production exits the market. In metallurgical coal, high-cost, uneconomic supply has remained resilient although the company expects to see an increasing number of production cuts, particularly in the United States. Given robust underlying demand growth for premium hard coking coals, pricing for BHP Billiton products is likely to be well supported in the medium and longer term.
