SHANGHAI: Baosteel, China's leading steelmaker, has obtained approval to raise up to 20 billion yuan in new capital in a bond issue to help trim its debt servicing costs.

The Shanghai-based steelmaker said that the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII) had given its support to its capital-raising plan. NAFMII was set up in September 2007 under the regulation of PBOC, the central bank, to manage the inter-bank markets for fixed income securities, foreign exchange and gold.

Baosteel's latest capital-raising plan calls for the issuing of 10 billon yuan of 7-year medium-term notes and another 10 billion yuan of one-year financing bills for sale mainly to institutional investors.