BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company by market value, has warned of “flattening” iron ore demand from China, in the most bearish remarks yet from a leading miner about the world’s largest consumer of the commodity.
At an industry conference in Perth, Australia, yesterday, Ian Ashby, president of BHP’s iron ore division, said the company expected growth in Chinese demand for iron ore to slow to single-digits.
“The [Chinese] economy is shifting, it’s changing. Steel growth rates will flatten and they have flattened,” Mr Ashby said at the Global Iron Ore & Steel Forecast Conference. “Seaborne iron ore demand will continue to grow strongly over the next 10 years, albeit at a low compound annual growth rate.”