Wuhan Iron & Steel has announced that it will buy a 48.41% stake in the steelmaking unit of Kunming Iron & Steel, the Wall Street Journal reported. Wuhan Iron & Steel will pay US$476 million for the investment, although the consolidation has yet to be finalized and complete details have not yet been disclosed. Wuhan Iron & Steel will be the largest majority shareholder at Kunming Iron & Steel at 47.41%, and claims to already have capacity of more than 20 million metric tons of steel a year. In recent years, Beijing has pushed for the consolidation of China's steel sector to eliminate inefficient operators, and aims to have two or three leading steel groups with a production capacity of 30 million metric tons each by 2010.
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