Baosteel Group Corp, China's biggest steel maker, will need to buy 90 percent more iron ore a year by 2012 when it plans to more than double output to tap rising demand from makers of automobiles and appliances.

 

The company, which used 42 million metric tons of ore last year, will require 80 million tons to meet the production target, Li Qingyu, chief executive of Shanghai-based Baosteel Trading Co, said in slides prepared for a conference in Beijing yesterday.

 

Baosteel plans to make 50 million tons of crude steel by 2012, from 26 million tons last year, ranking it among the world's top three steel makers, Bloomberg News reported. Iron ore prices have risen for five straight years to a record this year on higher demand from China, supplier of one-third of the world's steel.

 

"The global iron ore market will be balanced, and there will an oversupply sometimes" because of rising production capacity in Australia, Brazil and China, Li said in the slides.

 

(Shanghai Daily April 25, 2007)