Timesonline reported that Corus has stepped up its campaign against BHP Billiton’s attempt to take over mining rival Rio Tinto by complaining to the European Union about the deal.

Mr Philippe Varin CEO of Corus said that he is concerned the GBP 100 billion tie up would raise competition issues.

He said that “Steelmakers have been hit by steep price rises. The price of iron ore has soared in the past five years, driven by the construction boom in China.”

Mr Varin said that if they combined, the pair would control about 36% of the world’s seaborne trade in iron ore, which sets the price used in annual contract talks.

Mr Varin added that “If you link this with a spot price approach, what does a spot price mean when there is a very concentrated base of producers and when two producers of iron ore would have 70% of the market? Would it really be a spot price dictated by the market? I don’t think so.”

Rio Tinto last week sealed an agreement to nearly double the price of its iron ore shipments to China’s biggest steelmaker Baosteel. BHP and Rio Tinto have called for the traditional annual round of price talks to be replaced by an index pricing system that would give them much greater flexibility.