BHP soaring on price and demand boost

The world's biggest mining company BHP Billiton saw a huge leap in profits on the back of soaring prices for iron and copper in the first half of the year.

It also sought to please investors with a 22% dividend hike, having completed a $10 billion (£6 billion) share buyback quicker than expected.

"We expect robust demand in the short and medium term, supported by commodities' intensive emerging economic growth," the company said.

However, it followed its rivals in warning that costs were rising rapidly. "In the current environment, tight labour and raw material markets are presenting a challenge for all operators, and BHP Billiton is not immune from that trend," the company said.

Net profit was $23.6 billion for the year to end-June, up from $12.7 billion a year earlier. Analysts had predicted an annual profit of about $22 billion. Revenue for the year was up 35.9% to $71.7 billion.

BHP said the strong performance was the result of soaring prices for its key commodities that reflected ravenous demand from emerging markets such as China and tight supply.

Despite global economic instability, BHP is confident about the future.

"We remain positive on the longer-term outlook for the global economy. Over the past decade, emerging economies have contributed more to global growth than the developed world and we expect their share to expand asurbanisation and industrialisation continues."

BHP declared a final dividend of 55 cents a share.