Shougang bid for Australian miner rebuffed

Chinese steelmaker Shougang's US$4.3 million bid for 19.9% of Australian iron-ore miner Property Resources failed to receive approval from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board, the South China Morning Post reported. In April, Shougang's bid for another Australian miner, Mount Gibson, also failed. Some reports have suggested that Australia is tightening controls on acquisitions of domestic resource firms by Chinese state-owned firms, although Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner insisted that the government was "agnostic" about investors' nationality. Meanwhile, China's Western Mining has received approval for its purchase of a 10% stake in iron ore miner FerrAus.

For more on Chinese investment in Australia's iron ore industry, see this report from our July issue.