AAP reported that BHP Billiton will run a tighter iron ore business as demand begins to slow. But the company has not made cuts to its iron ore workforce, instead maintaining a staff hiring freeze.

Mr Jimmy Wilson the mining giant's iron ore president said the company was looking to improve efficiencies, effectiveness and productivity. There's been unprecedented demand and that demand has resulted in supply coming on and that's been appropriate. But we are going into a phase now where there's less demand.

Mr Wilson said that "Less demand as a percentage, not less demand as a magnitude, because there's still a lot of demand in the iron ore sector. BHP, the world's third biggest iron ore producer after Vale and Rio Tinto, was looking to increase volumes using its existing equipment.”

He said that Cooling markets would provide an opportunity to negotiate better deals to boost productivity. BHP recently sold a 15 per cent stake in a West Australian iron ore mine to Japanese conglomerates for $US1.5 billion.

Meanwhile, Mr Wilson and a senior manager at energy producer Santos said that the function that Australia's shale gas resources could be pursued for domestic consumption. I think there is an opportunity that's been missed there.