- Prices for key commodities slumped in the second half of 2022
- Cost inflation on energy and labor further hurt miners
According to Bloomberg article published on February 21, 2023, BHP Group Ltd., the world’s biggest miner, slashed its dividend after rising costs and softer commodity prices drove a decline in half-year profit.
Underlying attributable profit from continuing operations fell 32% to $6.6 billion in the six months to December 2022, the Melbourne-based company said Tuesday in a regulatory filing. BHP will pay an interim dividend of 90 cents per share, down from last year’s record $1.50 per share, while its payout ratio will fall to 69% from 78%.
“We are positive about the demand outlook in the second half of FY23 and into FY24, with strengthening activity in China on the back of recent policy decisions the major driver,” Chief Executive Officer Mike Henry said in the statement. “We expect domestic demand in China and India to provide stabilizing counterweights to the ongoing slowdown in global trade and in the economies of the US, Japan and Europe.”
The company also said it had initiated a process to divest two of its coal mines in Queensland.
Prices for key BHP commodities from iron ore to copper slumped in the second half of last year as China’s slowdown and hawkish central banks rattled the global economy. The world’s mining giants have also been hurt by cost inflation on energy, labor and other inputs.
