Beijing is likely to take measures to protect Chinese domestic steel mills against BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto's iron ore tie-up. "BHP and Rio's monopolistic combination will definitely hurt the Chinese steel industry and damage Chinese steelmakers' interests as China is the biggest iron ore importer," a government official said at a seminar last week, accordingto a report by state-owned Xinhua News Agency. "We are not opposed to seeking new policies or measures to improve China's pricing power in the iron ore benchmark price negotiation and we will continue to support China Iron & Steel Assn (Cisa)to represent Chinese steelmakers as the only negotiator for the iron ore price talks," the official, who works with the ministry of industry and information technology, said He did not elaborate on possible policies or measures.
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