POSCO, Japanese firms to buy Brazilian iron ore miner for US$3.12 bln

SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Yonhap) -- POSCO, South Korea's leading steelmaker, said Friday that it plans to form a consortium with Japanese companies to buy a combined 40-percent stake in a Brazilian iron ore mining firm for US$3.12 billion.

In a regulatory filing, the South Korean firm said it will spend $550 million to
hold a 6.48 percent stake in Namisa. The plan is aimed at securing stable
supplies of iron ore from which metallic iron can be economically extracted.
A final decision on the transaction will be made on Monday, it said. Its Japanese
partners include Nippon Steel Corp. and Japanese trading house Itochu Corp.
POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, imports around 25 percent of its
annual consumption of iron ores.
With the stake purchase, POSCO will import up to 1.8 million tons of iron ore
from Namisa till 2011. From 2012, the South Korean steelmaker will buy more than
3.7 million tons of iron ore from the Brazilian iron ore producer.
Namisa, which currently produces some 18 million tons of iron ore annually, is
seeking to expand its annual production to 38 million tons by 2013.
Shares of POSCO closed at 302,000 won on the Seoul bourse, up 0.17 percent. The
filing came after the market closed.
sam@yna.co.kr
(END)