BHP Billiton: Focused On Upstream Aluminum, To Add Assets
September 15 2009 - 4:47AM
Dow Jones News
BHP Billiton PLC's (BHP.LN) aluminum business will continue to
remain focused on the production of bauxite, alumina and smelted
metal, and will look for "good tier resources in the ground" as it
grows, the company's aluminum president said Tuesday.
"We need to pick a part of the production chain," Jon Dudas told
the Metal Bulletin aluminum conference in Duesseldorf, Germany,
noting that the company doesn't plan to focus on rolled products,
known as the downstream part of the production chain.
"We'll look for good tier resources in the ground and good power
to convert that" into production, he added.
Dudas said as an integrated aluminum producer, BHP Billiton
generates power at various sites around the world.
"Power is absolutely a function of what's the lowest cost
availability," he added.
"We'll still look to develop power as it's important to any
smelter we control in the future," he told delegates.
Aluminum production is extremely energy intensive, with power
accounting for around a third of overall production costs.
-By Andrea Hotter, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9413;
andrea.hotter@dowjones.com