China commodity-backed loans – BHP says jitters overblown … hadn’t affected BHP or broader industry

From the Wall Street Journal overnight, comments from

Mike Henry, marketing president for BHP, said Wednesday that jitters about the investigation (probe into commodity-backed loans in China) were overblown and that it hadn’t affected BHP or the broader industry “in any serious way.”
Henry also said that a squeeze on credit in China, the world’s second-largest economy, wasn’t a worry for BHP, as it would help set the country up for more sustainable growth in the longer run.
“We don’t see this being a fundamentally significant issue for the industry,” Mr. Henry said. “Copper prices are still holding up at close to $7,000 a ton, which is indicative of both the strength of the long run fundamentals for copper as well as the relatively small nature of this issue.”
“Part of that is allowing some of those financial stresses to play through the system,” he said. “And you will see some companies get into financial difficulties as a result of that [but] we are not worried. We see that as being exactly what the government needs to do to ensure growth over the long term in China.”

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Not sure whether or not to place this in the ‘well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?’ file.