FT reported that European steelmakers are gearing up to fight BHP Billiton’s attempts to take over Rio Tinto.

As per report, European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries said that it has already prepared a preliminary file detailing its concerns for the European Commission’s competition department and held an exploratory meeting with a commission team to look at issues raised by the combination.

The report added that one of Eurofer’s main concerns is that, if the merger went through, about 80%t of the world seaborne trade in iron ore would be in the hands of two rather than three companies, which it claims would have implications for pricing power.