Baosteel, China's largest iron and steel maker, is planning an overseas listing by 2010, while targeting Japan's Nippon Steel Corp and South Korea's POSCO as strategic partners.
Such a tie-up, which would probably take place through cross-share holding in each company, would be an important step towards Baosteel's overseas listing.
"We have a timetable to be listed before 2010, but have yet to draw up detailed plans," Chen Ying, secretary of Baosteel's board of directors, was quoted as saying by a local newspaper.
Baosteel Chairwoman Xie Qihua was quoted by a Japanese newspaper as saying she would ask both Nippon Steel and POSCO to buy shares in Baosteel.
Zheng Dong, an analyst from Guosen Securities, said that such an alliance of "Asian steel giants" would prove to be a strong competitor with Mittal Steel, which merged with Arcelor earlier this year.
"Foreign investors would probably be allowed to invest in about 3 per cent of Baosteel's outstanding capital," Zheng added.
The combined annual steel productivity of the three companies is currently around 90 million tons, while Mittal Steel's is 110 million tons.
Nippon and POSCO agreed to increase their cross-share holdings to 5 per cent in October. Nippon Steel is the world's second-largest steel maker, safter Mittal Steel. POSCO ranks third, while Baosteel is fifth.
Baosteel kicked off its co-operation with Nippon and Arcelor in 2004, when it launched a joint venture to produce steel for the automobile industry.
"Nippon has gone deeper into China's booming car market through this co-operation," said Zhang.
Baosteel was reported to have plans to take over Bayi Iron and Steel Co Ltd, a steelmaker in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, to expand its business scale.
The deal will be the first inter-city co-operation in China's steel sector.
But according to Bayi's announcement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on November 22, Baosteel has assigned an agency to investigate Bayi's asset management. The two parties have yet to sign any agreement.
Baosteel, the only steelmaker in Shanghai, had a steel production capacity of 22.73 million tons in 2005.
The company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2000, but scrapped plans to list simultaneously in Hong Kong.
