CHINA'S dependence on imported supplies of iron ore, a raw material for making steel, is poised to rise to almost 80 percent of consumption by 2015, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd.
Imports account for about 70 percent of Chinese supply now, Paul Gray, the researcher's principal iron-ore market analyst, said yesterday at the 7th EU Iron Ore Conference in Vienna. He estimated the country's "medium-term" import need for the commodity at 50 million metric tons a year.
China is the world's biggest steel producer and importer of the ore. It will consume more than 1.2 billion tons a year by 2015, a Wood Mackenzie presentation at the conference showed. China has invested in iron-ore projects from Australia to Brazil to tighten its grip on global supplies amid expanding usage and declining grades at domestic mines.
"The early ventures overseas by Chinese entities have been the most successful, the more recent ones have been rather more dubious and some have been outright failures," Gray said.
"If everything China invested in were to proceed, China could account for a third of its iron-ore requirements from captive overseas investment. We think that's highly improbable," he added.