Rio Tinto in China
Rio Tinto has a long involvement with the People’s Republic of China. US Borax began selling products to China in the early 1900s. Hamersley Iron and Comalco sold their first shipment of iron ore and aluminium to China 30 years ago, at a time when China had few trading relationships with international companies. The Group is now a key supplier of iron ore, aluminium, alumina and other minerals. In 2003, China consumed a quarter of the world's copper, steel, alumina and zinc. China is important to Rio Tinto’s business, and this importance is growing daily.
In 2004, Rio Tinto's 100 per cent-owned Hamersley Iron and 53 per cent-owned Robe River Joint Venture agreed to supply an additional 40 million tonnes a year of iron ore under long term contracts over the next 10 years to major Chinese steel mills–worth around $15 billion.
As well as an exporter of resources to China, Rio Tinto is also jointly developing Australian iron ore deposits and iron smelting technology with its Chinese partners through the Channar and the recently opened Eastern Range joint venture mines and the HIsmelt commercial iron smelting plant in Kwinana.
In China, the Group has 11 Representative Offices registered in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and one exploration joint venture company registered in Gansu Province. Four other offices are located in Hong Kong. The corporate office has been registered in Beijing since 1983. More recently, QMP registered a wholly owned foreign enterprise in China to manufacture metal powders in an industrial site in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.
"Rio Tinto intends to stay at the forefront of Australia's expanding trade relations with China. This will be achieved not only by expanding operations in resources supply, but also through our increasing marketing presence in China, and through our analysis of economic, social and political trends that impact on trade relations".
Leigh Clifford
CEO
