Baosteel weighs Russian raw material option

Baosteel weighs Russian raw material option

Xie Qihua, chairwoman of Shanghai-based Baosteel, met with her counterparts of Russia's Mikhailovsky and Evrazholding during the 3rd Metallurgical Summit held in Moscow on June 7-8. The three officials met to discuss a deal that would increase Baosteel's imports of Russian slab and ore. At the summit, Xie Qihua reaffirmed Baosteel's ambitions to become one of the world's top three steel producers by 2010. In order to achieve this goal, however, it needs raw material and innovative engineering solutions. The former is where Russia can really help. Even though its iron ore is of poorer quality than that from Australia or Brazil, Russia's abundant resources and slab making capacity mean it has the potential to become a leading supplier of raw material for the Chinese steel industry.