• China First Metallurgical Construction Corp, a subsidiary of China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC), has been banned by the World Bank from participating in its projects for three years for “fraudulent misconduct” relating to an urban transport project in Bangladesh. The World Bank declined to elaborate on the nature and details of the misconduct. A MCC Spokesman said overseas operations accounted for around 8% of its total sales. He said many of its overseas projects had not been completed, so no financial gains were booked.
• Molten iron spilling from the wall of a blast furnace killed 12 workers and injured another at Nanjing Iron & Steel on October 5. A preliminary investigation concluded that molten iron at temperatures of 1,400 degrees Celsius had penetrated the walls of the furnace, which was being prepared for decommissioning. The company is a subsidiary of Shanghai-based Fosun International, a Hong Kong-listed conglomerate. Fosun derived CNY388 million, or 11.4% of its total net profit in the first half of the year, from steel production, but it accounted for 74% of total revenues.
• Baoshan Iron and Steel Co has kept prices unchanged for its main products for November delivery after increasing them for two months. Baosteel monthly pricing is often seen as a benchmark in the domestic market. It cut prices for silicon steel products by between CNY200 and CNY600 per ton. The company expects heavy pressure on the steel market in the fourth quarter. The World Steel Association said global steel demand may grow 6.5% this year and another 5.4% next year after rising 15% in 2010.
• Angang Steel Co has halted a blast furnace on weakening demand. The No 2 furnace will be shuttered for one-and-a-half months, cutting annual output by about 320,000 tons of iron. Steel prices in China have dropped to the lowest in 10 months amid the slowing global economy and weaker construction demand. Angang’s net income in the first nine months may have fallen 91% from a year earlier.
• Aluminum producer China Zhongwang will spend USD3.8 billion buying equipment to build new production facilities that will produce 3 million tons of flat-rolled aluminum annually by 2018. Zhongwang’s net income for the half year to June fell 80% on the same period for last year. The firm blamed its earnings collapse on a U.S. trade ruling in March that slapped high anti-dumping duties on some of its products after a government inquiry found cheap Chinese aluminum imports were harming U.S. producers. Bank of China Analyst Luo Rongjin called Zhongwang’s target of selling 3 million tons of flat-rolled aluminum a year risky, as the total output in China is less than 8 million tons.
• Aluminum inventories in China rebounded 30% in the past three weeks and analysts expect further increases. Stockpiles were about 300,000 metric tons in mid-October, up from a 2011 low of 230,000 metric tons on September 23, according to Huang Fulong of Guangzhou KT Commodity Information & Consulting Co. Aluminum output in China climbed to a record 1.59 million tons in June due to capacity expansion. It then fell to 1.52 million tons in September as smelters reduced output.

China will achieve a self-sufficiency ratio of domestic ore of more than 50% by 2015, and moderately enhance Chinese-invested overseas ore resources, Zhang Changfu, Vice Chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), said. CISA earlier said China currently owns less than 10% of the imported iron ore and urged the country to increase ore imports from Chinese-invested resources. China has overseas mining resources capable of producing 150 million tons of ore annually, but most of the mines have yet to start production. About 60 million tons of imported iron ore came from mines that had Chinese investment in 2010. China aims to break the grip of the three major global miners ―Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton ― which controlled 62% of the world’s seaborne iron ore market in 2010. Shougang Co is working with a U.S. investment company to acquire an open pit magnetite iron ore mine in Western Africa, estimated to hold 1 billion tons of deposits and also plans a USD1 billion iron ore mine expansion in Peru. Baosteel Group is also actively seeking to develop iron ore mines in Africa. Investments in mining due to rising ore prices resulted in huge production expansion. Neville Power, CEO of Fortescue Metals Group, said he expects iron ore prices to remain high until 2012 with new supplies entering the market in 2013, the China Daily reports.

Hong Kong-listed Minmetals Resources has launched a CAD1.3 billion bid to buy Congo-focused copper producer Anvil Mining, offering 30% more than the average share price in the previous 20 trading days. The friendly takeover has won the approval  from Anvil’s board and major shareholder, Trafigura Beheer. Anvil’s flagship asset is the 95%-owned Kinsevere mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Output of copper concentrate – pre-smelted copper – was 5,939 tons in this year’s first-half. Anvil has recently completed an expansion that raised its annual output capacity to 60,000 tons, which would increase Minmetals’ copper output by about 60%. Kinsevere is estimated to have 1.07 million tons of copper resources at the end of last year. The deal needs approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board due to Anvil’s interest in Australian companies. MF Global Analyst Helen Wang said she was concerned about a lack of information on logistics infrastructure to ship copper out of Congo. A Spokesman for Minmetals Resources said a third-party trading firm bought Kinsevere’s output and assumed the responsibility and risks to send it to the market. He would not name the firm. A class action suit has been filed by Congolese advocacy groups against Anvil, alleging it has a role in Congo’s military suppression of rebels that resulted in a massacre in 2004. The company denies all involvement.

Cash-strapped miner China Hanking Holdings plans to spend more than 90% of its initial public offering (IPO) proceeds on repaying loans, leaving only a fraction of the capital raised for business expansion and upgrades of existing facilities. The miner reported CNY905.5 million of borrowings by the end of August, with more than 80% from non-bank institutions. Interest rate expenditure has risen as the company began to borrow from non-bank institutions. Hanking’s bank borrowings this year were less than half of those last year, when it secured CNY475 million of bank loans at an interest rate of 6.07%, without turning to non-bank institutions. Hanking has four iron ore mines, boasting 140 million tons of total probable reserves. Their total output grew more than 10% last year to 1.3 million tons. The miner also recorded a net profit last year of CNY444 million, up from CNY140 million in 2009, when demand for commodities declined because of the global economic downturn. It achieved a 73% profit margin in the first half.

China published its first iron ore price index in order to provide some reference to domestic steel mills, which are the world’s largest buyers. The China Iron Ore Price Index, published by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), comprises two sub-indexes to track domestically-produced ore prices and import prices respectively. In the first week of this month, the import price index was at 652.41, down 0.13 point from the previous week, according to CISA. The domestic price index was flat at 455.81 because there was no trading locally during the weeklong National Day holiday. The iron ore index is based on the level of 100 points in April 1994. “We expect iron ore prices to come under downward pressure in the fourth quarter,” a Standard Bank report said. The self-produced price index could give steel mills a guide to their imports. Zhang Changfu, Vice Chairman of CISA, said in August that Chinese steel firms paid USD16 billion more for iron ore imports in the first half of this year because of higher prices.