The world's biggest miner BHP Billiton Wednesday said that while Chinese growth had softened in the face of the global economic crisis, the country would continue to drive demand for its products.
In a report for the quarter ended September 30, BHP said production had increased in the key commodities of iron ore and petroleum.
But it noted that major market China was not immune to the financial crisis and that uncertainty would likely continue in the short term.
"Macroeconomic indicators show that Chinese growth has softened during the quarter, albeit from very high levels," the Anglo-Australian miner said in statement.
"We expect volatility and uncertainty to continue in the short term.
"Notwithstanding this short term uncertainty, we remain confident that the ongoing industrialisation and urbanisation of China and other developing economies will continue to drive strong longer term demand for our products."
Last week BHP's rival miner Rio Tinto said China's market had "paused for breath" and expected to see Chinese commodity demand growth dampen, adding that any bounce in net demand would not occur until 2009.
"There is an easing off in economic growth but China is not going to fall off the edge of the earth — we are seeing a slowdown and that's probably been exacerbated by the post-Olympics slump," Gavin Wendt, an analyst with Fat Prophets, told national news agency AAP.
Mining and resources stocks have dropped dramatically on the Australian share market amid fears the ongoing turmoil will spark a recession and stall demand for commodities.
Shares in BHP, which has made a hostile takeover bid for Rio, have lost 45 percent in value, while its smaller rival is 49.8 percent down since May.
BHP shares dropped 7.03 percent to close at 27.25 dollars on the Australian market Wednesday but Rio Tinto climbed 5.4 percent to 78.40 dollars.
