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Baotou Steel shares up on report of Mittal stake

Share prices for the listed company of China's Baotou Iron & Steel (Group) Co jumped yesterday following reports that world No. 1 steelmaker Mittal Steel Co NV is considering an investment in the company.

Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Union Co's shares, traded in Shanghai, surged 3.7 percent to 2.23 yuan (US$0.28) following reports that Netherlands-based Mittal was considering a deal with its state-owned parent company.

Staff at Baotou's securities department and its publicity department, speaking on condition of anonymity because they didn't know details and weren't authorized to speak publicly on the topic, said the two companies had been in contact.

Mittal's manager for China refused to comment yesterday.

Baotou Iron & Steel, founded in 1954 in north China's Inner Mongolia, is a medium-size steelmaker and also is China's biggest producer of rare earth products. In a letter on its Web site, the company's president, Lin Donglu, vows to "open to the outside deeply and widely."

China is one of the world's biggest steel consumers, using about a third of all steel produced worldwide, but foreign investment in its domestic industry remains limited.

Mittal also is reportedly in talks with Kunming Iron & Steel Co, the biggest steelmaker in the southwestern province of Yunnan, about a possible joint venture.

Although foreign investment in China's steel industry is restricted "in principle" due to its strategic importance, the government is encouraging foreign involvement to help local steelmakers acquire advanced technology and improve their management, the state-owned newspaper China Securities Journal said in a report yesterday.
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