CITIC Pacific Ltd, an arm of China's biggest State-owned investment company, signed accords to sell as much as two-thirds of the iron ore from its $4-billion Australian project to Chinese mills.

"We've identified the major steel works in China who have signed up preliminary sales agreements," Barry Fitzgerald, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong-based company's Australian unit, said in an interview. The balance of the output will be used by the company's own plants in China, he said.

China is expected to use more iron ore in the next five years than Australia, the biggest exporter, has produced in its history, Rio Tinto Group said this month. The Asian nation's economic growth may accelerate to 10.5 percent this quarter, according to a Bloomberg survey, as stimulus spending boosts demand for automobiles and refrigerators.