Rio Tinto, a leading
international mining group, said its China sales may reach a
possible annual growth of about 42.8 percent in 2007 year on year,
Julie Song, chief representative of the company's Beijing
representative office told Xinhua on Tuesday.
The company's China
sales stood at 4.062 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, accounting for
15 percent of the Australian company's global sales. Its 2007 sales
to China were forecast to top 5.8 billion U.S. dollars, accounting
for around 18 percent of its total sales volume.
Song said at a press
conference on Tuesday that the growth was mainly boosted by copper,
iron ore, aluminium and its energy businesses.
The global mining giant
released its 2007 annual result last week, with its underlying
earnings reaching an all-time high of 7.443 billion U.S. dollars,
up one percent from 2006.
"The Chinese market is
still gaining strong growth momentum, largely unaffected by Western
markets," said Michael Han, Rio Tinto China chief economist. He
predicted the country's gross domestic product (GDP) was likely to
grow around 10 percent this year.
(Xinhua News Agency
February 20, 2008)
