Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation (Baosteel) has launched the first-phase preparation for its overseas listing plan, the Shanghai Securities Journal reported Thursday, quoting sources from Baosteel.

The sources said the pre-listing process will take a long time since the company has to deal with a huge amount of financial and other relevant preparations.

There have been reports recently that Baosteel is preparing to list its core iron and steel assets on the New York Stock Exchange in November.

To pave the way for the listing, Baosteel has begun to look for law and accounting firms to help it meet the requirements for listing on American bourses.

Some investment bankers seeking for cooperation with Baosteel said, like other Chinese listed companies, Baosteel will probably make an IPO simultaneously on the Hong Kong and the New York stock exchanges.

A Baosteel official emphasized that the company has planned to list overseas since 2002 and the preparation has been undertaking continuously.

Baosteel is one of the most profitable steel enterprises in the world with an annual production capacity of 20 million tons. It ranked 296th on the 2006 list of Fortune 500.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2007)