Steel industry renews call for review05 Jun 2009
Brussels – The World Steel Association (worldsteel) has repeated its concerns issued in February 2008 following today’s announcement of a possible Rio Tinto/BHP Billiton joint venture (JV) of their Western Australia iron ore interests. This is matched with a formal request that all relevant competition authorities should very carefully review this proposed alliance.
Speaking on behalf of steel producers worldwide, worldsteel Director General Ian Christmas said: "The announcement of this possible JV does nothing to allay the far greater competition issues that we were and are still concerned about. We are again calling on competition authorities to seriously examine the obvious implications for future pricing regimes and the competitive environment for iron ore. At present we cannot see how this JV could be in the public interest and thus it should not be allowed to proceed."
Concluding, Ian Christmas said: "As we said in our statements last year, worldsteel supports free and fair trade in steel। Competition between steel companies promotes innovation and efficiency. It promotes the growth in steel use and serves steel’s customers and society as a whole. worldsteel has also supported the consolidation of steel businesses but not to the extent of endangering competition. Even the largest steel company in the world today accounts for less than 15% of total world steel production. We stand ready to provide access to our data to help competition authorities review the impact of this new JV proposal."

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