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.