At the opening ceremony of the Fourth Session of
China's 11th National People's Congress on March 5, Miao Wei, minister at
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), stated that, in order to tackle the pressure of rising costs for domestic steel production,
China will diversify its sources of
iron ore supply and will also increase domestic
scrap collection.
Minister Miao said that the three
iron ore giants, namely,
Vale,
Rio Tinto and
BHP Billiton, have monopolized the
iron ore market, and that difficulties in
iron ore price negotiations exert a negative influence on finished steel prices in
China.
Faced with such a situation, the minister said that
China will take several measures, including diversification of
iron ore supplies and increased domestic
scrap collection, to restrict the rise in
steelmaking costs and thereby prevent increased finished steel costs from being transferred to downstream users.