BHP Billiton Ltd, the world's biggest mining company, said the pace of iron ore demand from China, the biggest importer, has slowed by more than 50 percent.

"We're already seeing the beginning of the end of the first phase of economic development in China," Alberto Calderon, the Melbourne-based company's chief commercial officer and manager of its aluminum and nickel business, said on Wednesday at a conference in Canberra. "The pace of demand of iron ore from China has slowed down by more than half."

Australia, the world's biggest iron ore exporter, on Tuesday cut its price forecasts for this and next year on concerns that a slowing economy in China will curb demand growth. BHP last month delayed an estimated $68 billion of projects, including an iron ore port expansion, as commodity prices declined.

"What we have seen in the past 10 years is not only a function of massive demand coming from China, but the industry not being prepared," Calderon said. "This won't be repeated. Margins will still be good, but that scarcity pricing we won't see again, on average."

China Daily-Agencies