China Development Bank has extended an Rmb80bn line of credit to Wuhan Iron and Steel to finance the development of its recently acquired overseas iron ore assets. So far this year, the steelmaker has signed agreements to explore for iron ore in Madagascar and Australia and taken major stakes in Australian miner WPG, Canada’s Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines and Brazil’s MMX Mineracao e Metalicos.

China is rapidly diversifying its sources of global iron ore to reduce dependence on the world’s three largest iron ore miners, Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, which control about three-quarters of global seaborne supply.