BHP Billiton joins Rio Tinto in calling a commodities recovery
Melbourne — BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, sees early signs that commodity markets are rebalancing, with oil and natural gas best placed to deliver gains into 2018. "Fundamentals suggest both oil and gas markets will improve over the next 12 to 18 months," CEO Andrew Mackenzie said on Wednesday in the company’s first-quarter production report. "Iron ore and metallurgical coal prices have been stronger than expected, although we continue to expect supply to grow more quickly than demand in the near term." BHP joins Rio Tinto in expressing increased optimism on the outlook for commodities amid continued strong demand in China, the top consumer. Barclays, meanwhile, expects a broad-based recovery in raw materials in 2017, after an expected strong performance in the final quarter of this year, as demand improves. With long-life assets in oil and copper, BHP is well positioned to benefit as markets rebalance, says David Lennox, a resources analyst at Fat Prophets in Sy...
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