The European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries (EUROFER) has announced that it welcomes the decision of BHP Billiton to step back from its bid to take over fellow miner Rio Tinto.
Commenting on BHP Billiton's decision, EUROFER Director General Gordon Moffat said, "The objections made by the European Commission on the basis of our concerns have finally forced BHP to withdraw from its proposed merger with Rio Tinto. We could not see how any remedies would have been sufficient to make this merger work. The degree of concentration and control of the market was simply too great."
EUROFER for more than one year now has been stating that it could not accept a merger of two of the three mining companies which dominate almost 75 percent of the world market for seaborne iron ore. The proposed merger between the number two and three in the global iron ore business would have given the combined company a market share of almost 40 percent of the seaborne iron ore market, while Brazilian miner Vale (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce) already accounts for more than 33 percent.