a conundrum, page-12

ardvark.....

BHP Is a big company with big cash flows.

Uranium is a problem for them being locked in at long term contracts at low prices. Given the upgrade in Olympic Dam is years away and many billions of dollars needed then they will only benefit many years down the track.

Iron ore ..oil and base metals is where they are at. I cant even begin to analyse them given the size and segements and unit costs of labour, sovereign problems and many many many other issues. I challenge anyone without spending every day of their lives (assuming they have access to their internal info) to analyse them.

the chart is the only way IMHO.

What u do know is oil and base metals, especially Cu have a big impact on their bottom line.

It is no coincidence that the Cu price peaked in May 06 and that coincided with the peak in BHPs share price in May 06 at 32 per share.

I read yesterday on Bloomberg that the average home swallows up 200kg of copper. New home sales sagging has a big impact on that and rising interest rates in the US is hitting that market hard.

As for China? They are a communist state and information is not available that can be verified. That is the nature of totalitarian governments. they have their agenda and will only release rubbery figures at best so any information from them will never be known with any confidence.