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Mining company BHP hiked its interim dividend after reporting a rise in profit on higher iron ore and copper prices as well as record production at Western Australia iron ore.
For the half year ended 31 December, pre-tax profit rose to $8.83 billion from $7.79 billion year-on-year as revenue rose to $25.64 billion from $22.29 billion.
Underlying profit rose 16% to $6.04 billion.
The performance was attributed to higher iron ore and copper prices, record production at Western Australia iron ore and record average concentrator throughput at Escondida, and cost reduction initiatives across its assets, the company said.
The interim dividend per share was raised by 55% to 101p a share.
'We now estimate that the world economy will be 4.5% smaller in the 2021 calendar year than it would have been if COVID-19 had not occurred: 1.5% stronger than our view of six months ago, the company said.
'The difference reflects the speed of the rebound in ex-China markets in the second half of the 2020 calendar year, led by India and the US, plus additional stimulus measures in developed countries. The Chinese economy has met our above-consensus expectations,' it added.
At 8:09am: (LON:BHP) Bhp Group PLC share price was 0p at 1630.6p