Luo Bingsheng, vice chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), has stated that in the first 10 months of the current year the top 10 Chinese iron and steel companies in terms of crude steel output produced an aggregate 244.72 million mt of crude steel, accounting for 46.61 percent of total nationwide crude steel output, with this share rising by 6.28 percentage points as compared to the corresponding period of 2009. The leading mills' increased share of China's crude steel output has resulted from consolidation and restructuring of domestic steel enterprises, the CISA official said.
Mr. Luo also added that in recent years Chinese steel enterprises have been stepping up investments in overseas iron ore mining projects. The CISA vice chairman said that current annual iron ore production from overseas mines owned by Chinese steel companies stands at 192 million mt of iron ore, accounting for 30.5 percent of total Chinese iron ore imports per annum.