Diversified miner BHP CEO Mike Henry said on Tuesday that the mining giant was well-positioned to weather a range of global trade outcomes, including an escalated trade war, as the company focused on commodities resilient to economic uncertainty.

Speaking at a Bank of America conference, Henry warned that trade conditions had become increasingly volatile, with US tariffs reaching levels not seen since the 1930s. He said the direction of trade policy remained “highly uncertain".

“We are seeing US tariffs higher than they have been since the 1930s and that has significant implications for the global economy,” Henry said. “Where trade policy goes from here, as we’ve seen in the past week, is highly uncertain. Obviously.”

He outlined two broad scenarios: one involving a prolonged trade war that drags on global growth for the rest of the decade, and another in which countries reaffirm their commitment to free trade and global trade rebounds. However, he said that the latter seemed “pretty far fetched at the moment".

“The reality will likely fall somewhere between. There will be ongoing tariffs, but some bilateral trade agreements."

Despite the uncertainty, Henry stressed that BHP’s portfolio was built for resilience. “The commodities that BHP is in are resilient. In fact, a key factor in how we choose which commodities to be in is their resilience under different scenarios,” he said.

He noted that even in the event of escalating trade tensions, governments were likely to deploy fiscal and monetary stimulus to support growth, potentially limiting the impact on steel and copper demand.

“The impact on potash is expected to be minimal, thanks to this being less correlated to economic growth than other commodities,” he added.

“If trade deals are executed, BHP’s commodities stand to further benefit."

Henry pointed out that BHP’s success over the past 140 years had been built on its ability to continually reshape its business and portfolio in response to a changing world.

Today, the group has a simple portfolio comprising a number of large, long-life assets, the vast majority of which are in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries.

"These world-class resources provide a strong pipeline of attractive organic growth opportunities, which leverage our proven strengths. In the near term, our iron-ore and steelmaking coal businesses provide low capital intensity growth, while [the] Jansen [potash project] represents the entry into a new commodity for BHP. We know the world will need to produce a lot more copper over the coming decades to meet the significant growth in demand. And with our projects, BHP is well-placed to help meet this," said Henry.