BHP Billiton: China, India to boost commodity prices

Marius Kloppers, who starts as chief executive officer Oct. 1, said turbulence in financial markets and the prospect of an economic slowdown in the U.S. would have “some effect” on the company. Only “a dramatic chain of events” would make the company change its expansion plans, he said. BHP Billiton spokesman Illtud Harri Saturday confirmed Kloppers’s statements, made in an interview with the Financial Times. Harri declined to comment on whether BHP Billiton would bid for Alcoa Inc., the U.S.’s largest aluminum producer. The Financial Times said the Melbourne based company may not be interested in bidding for Alcoa as it focuses on mining.

Alcoa owns many so-called downstream assets including packaging plants, the newspaper said.

BHP plans to spend as much as US$70 billion on new mining as well as oil and gas projects, the newspaper reported.

Oil, copper, iron ore and coal are “very attractive” because demand outstrips supplies, while aluminum and nickel “are not quite as tight,” said Kloppers.

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