China steel forecast down

Launceston
One of the first steps in recovering from a debilitating condition like alcoholism is admitting you have a problem. It seems BHP Billiton has finally started down this path with iron ore.
In announcing a 52-percent plunge in annual profit on Tuesday, Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie also lowered BHP's forecast for the peak in Chinese steel output to between 935 and 985 million tonnes by the mid-2020s.
This was down from the previously long held target of 1 to 1.1 billion tonnes that had underpinned BHP's massive expansion of its iron ore mines, which has more than doubled output in the past five years to a total of 254 million tonnes in the 2014-15 financial year.
The scaling back of BHP's China steel forecast leaves Sam Walsh, the chief executive of rival Rio Tinto, as one of the last holdouts for a peak above 1 billion tonnes.