BHP Billiton: Global Economic Recovery Will Be Sluggish
October 29 2009 - 6:54AM
Dow Jones News
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) Thursday said it expects sluggish global
economic recovery and weaker commodity demand from China now that
the company has filled depleted inventories.
"Restocking in China is now essentially complete and we are
seeing signs of a pullback in demand as a consequence," Chief
Executive Marius Kloppers said at the company's annual general
meeting.
Outside of China, the miner is seeing the first signs of
restocking among the major economies, which will drive incremental
demand in the near term.
"We ... believe it won't be until mid 2010 before we see clean
underlying demand that is not masked by inventory effects,"
Kloppers added.
Company Web site: http://www.bhpbilliton.com
-By Jeffrey Sparshott, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)207 842 9347;
jeffrey.sparshott@dowjones.com