After having shipped half its record quarterly output of iron ore to China, thereby setting the stage for much higher production in 2010, mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd. Wednesday posted an upbeat outlook for commodities.

The Melbourne- based company, the world’s biggest miner, said that the strong sales to China, as well as inventory rebuilding in developed economies, during the December quarter largely resulted from price recoveries across key commodities – including iron ore, copper, nickel, and aluminium.

In a statement, BHP Billiton said that it had sold nearly 46 percent of its cargoes from Western Australia using “shorter term reference pricing” during the 2009 second-half. In comparison, a July statement by the company had said that almost 30 percent of shipments were sold in the year’s first-half, through a combination of cash, quarterly and index pricing.

Noting that BHP Billiton’s iron ore output showed an 11 percent year-on-year increase during the December quarter, the company said that almost 50 percent of the 32.45 million tonnes of quarterly iron ore produced by its Australian and Brazilian mines went to Chinese steel mills which seemingly prefer imported rather than domestic ore, due to its greater iron content.

In its notably upbeat statement, BHP Billiton said: “Government stimulus measures appear to have supported a gradual return to normalized global trade, albeit from a low base, and most key indicators across the developed economies showed improvement.”