Want it self-sufficient

Self-sufficient: Iron ore is transferred at the 200,000-ton ore dock at Zhanjiang Port in south China's Guangdong Province. [Beijing Review]

CISA said China would increase its domestic supply of iron ore if Chinese steelmakers continue to lose ground at the iron ore benchmark negotiation.

CISA statistics said iron ore production increased 17.8 percent year on year in the January-February period this year, almost doubling the growth rate from the previous year. Annual production will increase to 1 billion tons, from last year's 880 million tons.

In addition, iron ore projects under construction or planning have an annual production capacity of 480 million tons, and mining at these projects will start in two or three years.

And China has enough reserves to sustain itself, should it need to. The country has made breakthroughs in mineral exploration in recent years, reporting verified iron ore reserves of nearly 12 billion tons. A report on the mineral exploration work in 2009, compiled by the China Geological Survey under the Ministry of Land and Resources and released on April 2, predicted China could have more than 200 billion tons of iron ore reserves.

CISA said the high cost of iron ore mining in China accounts for the insufficient domestic supply, because China has many small and medium-sized mines but few large ones. In addition, a considerable amount of these reserves consist of associated ore, which makes mining and processing more difficult. Yet, MII and major steelmakers have invested heavily in iron ore mining and processing technologies in recent years, and these efforts are expected to greatly increase China's iron ore production in the future.