Resource News
China’s rallying cry against iron ore duo Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton
By resourceINTEL · December 17, 2009 · 11:10 pm · Leave a Comment
CALLING for “unified opposition among various countries”, the China Iron & Steel Association has described a proposed joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton as a “form of monopoly” and “a threat to global steel market development”.
“We will resolutely oppose” the joint venture, the association said in a statement published in China Metallurgical News yesterday.
Rio and BHP signed a binding agreement earlier this month to combine their iron ore operations in Western Australia.
The association called for “various countries to use anti-monopoly measures to block the proposed venture”.
It also called on China’s regulators to use the anti-monopoly law to “resist” the venture, which it said threatened “fair competition principles” in the iron ore market and could cause an “irrational increase in iron ore prices”…read more at The Australian
