BHP Billiton sales to India outpacing gains in China

BHP Billiton, the world's biggest mining company, says that 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, the company's incoming chief executive, Marius Kloppers, said Friday at a conference with reporters in Melbourne. BHP is still looking to invest in bauxite and iron ore projects in India, he said. BHP's sales to China jumped 47 percent in the six months ending in June to $5.29 billion from a year ago, according to the company. Its sales to India surged 56 percent in the same period from a year ago to $1.14 billion, according to figures provided by BHP. China accounted for 20.4 percent of BHP's sales in the second half, whereas India only contributed to 4.4 percent of sales, a BHP spokeswoman, Samantha Evans, said in an e-mail. India's government plans to spend as much as $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 Aug. 22 it has as much as $50 billion worth of projects 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 in Melbourne. "They've built the business for Chinese demand, and what they want to do with the $50 billion of projects is to prepare for the new emerging economies like India." BHP's total sales have jumped to $47.5 billion this year, from $17.8 billion in 2002, and the $19.1 billion it had in 2001 when it was created from the merger of BHP and Billiton.