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.
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. That took production for the half year to 62.6 million tonnes, also a record figure.
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.
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Looking ahead, BHPsaid 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.
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.
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