China to halve iron ore resource tax

Chinese government is reported that it would cut the tax paid by its domestic iron ore producers by half to 40% of the base rate from May 1st, acting to help miners maintain local supply and drive down the prices received by Australian and Brazilian miners.

"Providing this tax subsidy means the Chinese miners will continue to produce. If that is the case, the strategy of the top three suppliers of pushing high-cost Chinese supply out of business will not work," said Helen Lau, mining analyst at Argonaut Securities in Hong Kong.