BHP Billiton remains uncertain about short-term demand for commodities because of the lingering impact of the global financial crisis.

But it is in no doubt about the longer term, predicting looming global shortages in energy and copper as the industrialisation and urbanisation of China and India pick up pace.

And for good measure, it is also predicting that global steel demand will double over the next 15 years, underpinning long-term demand for the steel-making commodities of iron ore, coking coal, manganese and nickel.

The man responsible for BHP's marketing of $US50 billion ($A58 billion) in commodities annually, Tom Schutte, said yesterday that the ''world is going to be short of energy in the medium to long term''.

''We expect world energy consumption to increase by 40 per cent over the next two decades, driven again by population growth, urbanisation and increasing per capita consumption [of commodities] in China and India,'' Mr Schutte said.