Wuhan Steel mulls Australia’s Aquila assets
Wuhan Iron & Steel Group, a major iron and steel producer in China, has showed interest in the proposed sale of iron ore asset by Aquila Resources, the fourth-largest Australian mining company by market capitalization, the South China Morning Post reported.
The company had inked a confidentiality agreement with Aquila late last month, which enabled it to access the latter’s financial data, according to the report.
Wuhan Steel spokesman Bai Fang said he did not know about the matter, while the board secretary of the group’s Shanghai-listed arm was not available for comment.
Aquila said on Wednesday last week it had assigned investment banks Citigroup and Macquarie to conduct a strategic review and had been involved in talks with several interested parties on the proposed sale, including Brazil’s iron ore producer Vale and Swiss’s coal, copper and nickel mining company Xstrata.
The company will release the detailed plan to its shareholders next month and wait for their votes.
Hubei-based Wuhan Steel has been seeking global expansion via acquiring iron ore assets and building plants in Australia, India and Vietnam, in a bid to secure its demand for iron ore, the company’s president Deng Qinglin said earlier this year.
Wuhan Steel expects to produce 22 million tons of crude steel this year, compared with 16 million tons last year, according to Deng.
Tags: steel