The World Steel Association (worldsteel) has repeated its concerns issued in February 2008 following the announcement on 5 June 2009 of a possible Rio Tinto/BHP Billiton joint venture (JV) of their Western Australia iron ore interests. This has been 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.”
