Reports: Rio Tinto analysts leave China
BEIJING — Mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd. has pulled researchers who follow China’s steel industry out of the country after four employees were detained on spying allegations during iron ore price talks, news reports said Thursday.
The employees left Wednesday, the Australian Financial Review and China’s 21st Century Business Herald said. The Herald said they went to Singapore or Australia. Neither said how many people were involved or gave other details.
A Rio spokeswoman in Melbourne, Amanda Buckley, declined comment.
Four Rio employees, including a Shanghai-based Australian in charge of Rio’s Chinese iron ore business, were detained July 5 while Rio was acting as lead negotiator for global iron ore suppliers in price talks with Chinese steel mills.
State media say they are accused of bribing employees of Chinese steel companies to obtain confidential information on China’s negotiating strategy.
The Herald, citing an unidentified member of China’s negotiating team, said the Chinese have switched to talking with Brazil’s Vale about prices because “there is no one at Rio that we can talk to.”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Wednesday the Australian government has yet to receive information directly from Chinese authorities about why the Australian, Chinese-born Stern Hu, was detained.
Rudd warned China the world is watching its handling of the case and said Beijing should consider its economic ties as it deals with the Rio employees.
On Thursday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman criticized what he called “noise” from Australia about the case, though he did not mention Rudd by name.
“This is interference in the judicial sovereignty of China. This cannot change the objective facts and cannot affect the legal dealings of the case by Chinese authorities,” ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.
“China and Australia are important trading partners for each other,” Qin said. “We attach great importance to the stable development of economic and trade relations, but we are firmly opposed to anyone stirring up the case and interfering with China’s independent judicial authorities. This is not in the interest of Australia.”
The iron ore talks have failed to produce an agreement on prices for the buying year that began July 1.
China’s booming steel industry consumes up to 60 percent of global iron ore production and Beijing is pressing for deep price cuts after two years of increases totaling more than 120 percent.
An employee who answered the phone at the China Iron & Steel Association, the industry group that is negotiating for Chinese mills, said “There is nothing to say” and hung up when asked whether talks were still under way.
Phone calls to Vale’s China office in Shanghai were not answered.
Industry analysts say an extended period without an iron ore price agreement might prompt miners and Chinese mills to change investment and production plans.
The communist government considers information about steel production, sales and iron ore costs to be secret, according to state media.
Chinese news reports say executives of at least five major Chinese steel producers and the industry association are also under investigation.
Associated Press Writers Tanalee Smith in Adelaide and Tini Tran in Beijing and researcher Bonnie Cao in Beijing contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Rio Tinto Ltd.: www.riotinto.com
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