Rival Rio Tinto Ltd has embarked on a bid to reduce debt and conserve cash by cutting capital expenditure and axing about 14,000 jobs worldwide this calendar year. Rio Tinto overnight flagged a further six per cent cut to aluminium production and a cut of 1,100 jobs from the division. BHP Billiton's announcements on Wednesday came as it released its second quarter production report for 2008/09 and delivered a five per cent rise in iron ore output to 29.355 million tonnes. Record iron ore shipments and production were achieved for the half, 59.179 million tonnes, and the company expects to produce 130 million tonnes of iron ore in this year. BHP Billiton said it had received requests from some iron ore and metallurgical coal customers for deferrals to shipments amid the weak economic environment.