Very interesting to see the growth in business within India...

Very interesting to see the growth in business within India becoming reality. No wonder MCR have mentioned discussions in the past with BHP, who would want that concentrator going full steam.
Despite the export decline for Chindia in these troubled times, the sustainable internal demand for product is still huge.

BHP's new growth zone
By Tan Hwee Ann 2007-8-25
Change font size:
-- Advertisement --

BHP Billiton Ltd, the world's biggest mining company, said growth in sales to India is outpacing gains in China as the southern Asian nation requires more coal and nickel to meet rising demand.

BHP is raking in higher sales from India than it did six years ago from China, which now accounts for a fifth of revenue, incoming Chief Executive Officer Marius Kloppers said at a conference with reporters in Melbourne. BHP is still looking to invest in bauxite and iron ore projects in India, he said.

India's government plans to spend as much as US$450 billion by 2012 to build new roads, ports and power stations and accelerate growth to 10 percent from an average 8.6 percent in the past four years. BHP said on Wednesday that it has as much as US$50 billion worth of projects that it could develop to feed rising demand.

"Everybody in the industry missed the Chinese growth story, and what BHP is doing now is to set themselves up for the next stage when India could go on the same growth path," said Mark Pervan, a commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd in Melbourne.

BHP's sales to China jumped 47 percent in the six months ended in June to US$5.29 billion from a year ago. Its sales to India surged 56 percent in the same period from a year ago to US$1.14 billion, according to calculations by Bloomberg News. China accounted for 20.4 percent of BHP's sales in the second half, and India contributed only 4.4 percent.