BHP reports strong quarter one output as copper, steelmaking coal rise

BHP Group Ltd on Tuesday reported a strong start to production in the first quarter of financial year 2026, citing solid operations and timely maintenance execution.

The Melbourne, Australia-based diversified miner said in its operational review that copper production rose 3.5% to 493,600 tonnes in the first quarter ended September 30, up from 476,300 tonnes a year earlier.

Steelmaking coal output climbed 7.2% to 4.9 million tonnes, compared with 4.5 million tonnes last year.

Meanwhile, iron ore production edged down 0.8% to 64.1 million tonnes from 64.6 million tonnes, and energy coal output fell 4.5% at 3.5 million tonnes from 3.7 million tonnes.

"Overall macro-economic signals for commodity demand remain resilient, and global growth forecasts are moving higher. While we expect some deceleration in growth in the second half of calendar year 2025, in China we still expect gross domestic product growth of approximately 5% for the year.

"In copper, major disruptions at some of our competitors’ mines have tightened overall market fundamentals, benefitting our world-class portfolio of assets. With momentum from a strong first quarter, BHP is on track to deliver on full-year guidance and we are making progress on our growth pipeline across Australia and the Americas," said Chief Executive Officer Mike Henry.

BHP kept its financial 2026 production guidance unchanged at 1.8 to 2.0 million tonnes for copper, 258 to 269 million tonnes for iron ore, 18 to 20 million tonnes for steelmaking coal, and 14 to 16 million tonnes for energy coal.