beijing taps resource minnows for ore

Very Interesting article which supports the prospects of companies like Sphere with interests in Mauritania.

Now if we could just get some steady support for the SP which continues to yo yo!

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/beijing-taps-resource-minnows-to-feed-hunger-for-ore/story-e6frg8zx-1225823749252

Beijing taps resource minnows to feed hunger for ore
Chuin-Wei Yap From: The Australian January 27, 2010 12:00AM Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Print Email Share Add to Digg Add to del.icio.us Add to Facebook Add to Kwoff Add to Myspace Add to Newsvine What are these?
AS its appetite for iron ore reaches record heights, China is importing more of the steelmaking material from a handful of smaller supplier countries rather than its mainstay sellers in Australia and Brazil.

Based on Dow Jones Newswires' analysis of import data for 2009, released by the General Administration of Customs last week, imports from South Africa, Ukraine, Russia and Canada have risen as portions of China's total imports.

While China continued to import hefty amounts from Australia and Brazil -- enough to dwarf imports from all other countries combined -- the contributions from these top suppliers as a percentage of total iron ore imports remained largely unchanged compared with 2008.

In comparison, the role of smaller supplier countries in feeding China's appetite for ore has risen after China became embroiled last year in increasingly difficult negotiations over bulk import prices from its biggest suppliers, Australian miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, and Brazil's Vale.

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South Africa's share of China's ore market rose to 5.44 per cent last year compared with 3.27 per cent in 2008. The country was China's fourth-largest supplier in both years.

Last year, Ukraine's share rose to 1.84 per cent from 1.03 per cent the previous year, becoming the fifth-largest supplier from ninth-largest in 2008. Russia's share rose to 1.54 per cent from 1.31 per cent. The country was China's sixth-largest supplier both years.

In 2009, Canada's share of the China ore market rose to 1.38 per cent from 0.84 per cent, becoming China's seventh-largest supplier from the 10th-largest in 2008.

A new entrant in China's list of top 10 supplier countries last year was Mauritania, which exported 6.12 million metric tonnes of iron ore to China, or 0.97 per cent of the Chinese market. China Minmetals Corporation, the country's largest state-owned metals trader, has a joint venture to develop iron ore resources in the West African nation.

India's share of China's iron ore import market, traditionally ranked third-largest, fell to 17.1 per cent from 20.5 per cent in 2008.