Platts cited Mr Chen Yanhai director of the raw materials department of MIIT as saying that China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has also opposed the planned merger of Australia's BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

Mr Chen said the MIIT was opposed to the merger because of its apparent nature of a monopoly and agreed with the Ministry of Commerce that the merger should be set up in agreement with China's anti-monopoly laws. The MIIT will study the impact the merger has and prepare appropriate counter measures.

He said that in an effort to beef up China's independence in iron ore supplies, MIIT called on local iron ore miners to increase their competitiveness against international iron ore suppliers. The mining and utilization of local 15% Fe iron ore will also be slated to be further tapped.

MIIT also encouraged local Chinese steelmakers to improve their internal administration and product mix with a view to enhancing their comprehensive utilization of steelmaking raw materials.

China imported 443.56 million tonnes of iron ore in 2008, representing about 50% of the global seaborne iron ore trade. The country produced 470.6 million tonnes of hot metal in 2008 which would require about 753-776 million tonnes of iron ore. So around 57% to 59% of China's total iron ore need had to be imported.

(Sourced from Platts)