BHP Billiton says that the financial year to end-June 2009 was a very challenging but it achieved solid operational performance across a range of commodities including coal.
The mining company has reflected that significant demand contraction was exacerbated by dramatic movements in inventory levels.
BHP Billiton believes that in the short term, underlying demand trends in its markets for minerals and metals are still being masked by de-stock and stocking activities.
The group claims that with the China inventory build essentially complete, it is now seeing evidence that re-stocking has commenced in North America, Europe and Japan. But the company says that commodity prices will be influenced by supply responses due to latent capacity currently existing in the industry.
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