Wang Hongren, board director of China's largest steelmaker Hebei Iron and Steel Group, has said that the group plans to increase its self-sufficiency in iron ore at the rate of an additional 5 million mt in iron ore supplies each year over the coming five years, thereby further reducing its dependency on foreign iron ore supplies. At the end of the 12th five-year plan period (2011-2015), Hebei Iron and Steel Group will produce 35 million mt of iron ore concentrate per year, with its dependency on foreign iron ore thus decreasing from 50 percent at present to 30 percent.
As the international iron ore market is a seller's market, Hebei Iron and Steel Group started to seek ways to increase its iron ore self-sufficiency two years ago and so established its own mineral resources company. At present, Hebei Iron and Steel Group controls 4.4 billion mt of iron ore reserves, up from 889 million mt two years before. In addition, Hebei Iron and Steel Group's iron ore cost is at a competitive level of RMB 509/mt.