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| Rio Tinto eyes better relationship with China |
| Bloomberg / Melbourne Feb 15, 2010, 00:00 IST |
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Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, said it planned to build its relationship with China, even as four of its employees face charges of obtaining trade secrets and bribery in the country.
“We would like to build relationships with China and I think that can take place over a number of different areas,” Rio Tinto Chief Financial Officer Guy Elliott said in an interview broadcast on Sky News Business Channel today.
Rio Tinto has become more dependent on Chinese business as the country’s demand for commodities continues to rise and its economy expands. China became the company’s largest market last year and accounted for almost a quarter of its revenue, Chief Executive Officer Tom Albanese said last week. The four employees were formally arrested last August.
“This issue will pass, and the relationship between China and Rio is a much more longer-term story,” said Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group in Melbourne.
Prosecutors in China have filed the case against the Rio employees with the Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People’s Court, Tao Wuping, a lawyer for one of the detainees, Liu Caikui, said February 11. The proceedings won’t be made public because they concern commercial secrets, he said.
Stern Hu, the head of Rio’s iron ore unit in China, Liu, Wang Yong and Ge Minqiang had “acted properly and ethically, the company said after their arrest.
“Our concern is with the individuals themselves and it would be inappropriate of me to comment on what is now a judicial process,” Elliott said. The company viewed the matter “with great concern,” he said.
London-based Rio’s sales to China overtook North America and Europe in 2009, reaching 24.3 per cent of the total from 18.8 per cent a year earlier, it said February 11 when it posted financial results. The proportion of sales to China, the world’s biggest iron-ore consumer, has doubled since 2004.
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