Posted on 07/16/2009 3:29:22 AM PDT by myknowledge
Chinas whole steel industry has been bribed by Rio Tinto, suggested a lead article in the China Daily newspaper on Wednesday that marks a sharp escalation in a dispute rocking the global steel and iron ore industries.
The state-owned China Daily quoted an unnamed industry insider claiming Rio bribed each of the 16 Chinese steel companies involved in this years negotiations to set the benchmark iron ore price, a process that brings together steelmakers and suppliers of iron ore, steels key ingredient.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
It's all about money.
Bribery is one of them.
Even the article admits that bribery is common practice in this industry.
What changed over the last few years is the consolidation by the mining companies into essentially, Rio and BHP holding all the cards.
That type of monopolistic power is typically abused.
“Rio bribed each of the 16 Chinese steel companies involved in this years negotiations to set the benchmark iron ore price”.
Why is this being questioned? OPEC has been doing this in the oil market for YEARS.
China has steel?
I thought they used a crever mixture of fused sand and recycled scrap metal.
Looks like the mining giant is shacking up with the Chicoms, providing the iron ore and the dollars.
Actually, the steel China produced every year is more than the combinatin of steel produced of North.America+Europe+Japan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.