Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP on Tuesday reported a lower-than-expected US$3.73 billion half-yearly profit, as it warned of a softening Chinese market and growing trade rows. The underlying profit for the six months to December 31 was eight percent lower than the US$4.05 billion recorded in the previous corresponding period, missing market expectations after a series of operational problems at its mines.

BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said a "strong second half is expected to partially offset the impacts from operational outages in the first half". They included production outages because of a major train derailment at its Western Australia iron ore operations, an outage at its copper mine in South Australia and a fire at a Chilean facility. The miner said it expected global growth to be slightly softer in 2019, with further escalation in trade protectionism a "downside risk".

The company declared an unchanged US$0.55 dividend per share for the period.

Revenues from continuing operations were up one percent to US$20.7 billion.

Net profit after taxation attributable to shareholders stood at US$3.76 billion, a 87 percent jump from the prior period after the previous result was weighed down by a hefty charge from US tax reforms.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019