16th Feb 2021 05:40
(Alliance News) - Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Group PLC on Tuesday hiked its interim dividend, as profit and revenue rose on higher metal prices and strong output at several of the group's assets.
For the six months to the end of December, pretax profit rose 13% to USD8.83 billion from USD7.79 billion the same period the year before, on revenue that grew 15% year-on-year to USD25.64 billion from USD22.29 billion.
BHP's profit performance was helped by a rise in iron ore and copper prices, as well as record output from its Western Australian Iron Ore business and record average concentrator throughput at the Escondida copper mine in Chile.
Profit from operations increased 17% to USD9.75 billion from USD8.31 billion the prior year.
BHP raised its interim dividend by 55% to 101.0 US cents from 65.0 cents the year before, while net debt as at December 31 fell 7% to USD11.84 billion from USD12.68 billion.
BHP kept its copper production guidance for its year ending June to be between 1.51 million and 1.65 million tonnes compared to 1.72 million tonnes mined the year prior.
For iron ore, BHP still expects financial 2021 production to be between 245 million and 255 million tonnes from 248 million tonnes the year before.
Coal production for the year is anticipated between 40 million and 44 million tonnes for metallurgical coal and 21 million and 23 million tonnes for energy coal. In financial 2020, BHP produced 41 million tonnes of metallurgical coal and 23 million tonnes of energy coal.
Petroleum output is expected at the bottom of the guidance range, which is between 95 million and 102 million barrels of oil equivalent compared to 109 million the year before.
"BHP delivered a strong set of results for the 2020 financial year that reflect the strength, resilience and quality of our people and our portfolio. In a year marked by the challenges of the global Covid-19 pandemic, social unrest in Chile and commodity price volatility, we were safer, more reliable and lower cost," said Chief Executive Officer Mike Henry.
"We expect most major economies will contract heavily in 2020, China being the exception. Recovery will vary considerably by country. Our diversified portfolio and high-quality assets position us to continue to generate returns in the face of near-term uncertainty, even as we secure and create the options in future-facing commodities that will allow us to sustainably grow value in the long-term," Henry added.
Shares in BHP Group closed 2.7% higher at AUD47.00 on Tuesday in Sydney.
By Dayo Laniyan; [email protected]
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