Shanghai. June 16. INTERFAX-CHINA - Sinosteel Corp. (Sinosteel), one of China's largest iron ore traders, announced last Friday that it held a 43.62 percent stake in Australian-listed Midwest as of June 12, up from the 40.09 percent it announced earlier this month.

In efforts to acquire in full the Australian iron ore miner, Sinosteel is currently offering AUD 6.38 ($5.99) per Midwest share in a deal which values the company at approximately AUD 1.36 billion ($1.28 billion). The takeover deal requires the approval of a minimum of 50.1 percent of Midwest shareholders in order to proceed.

Sinosteel also announced on Friday that it is shortening the period within which it will pay Midwest shareholders the current consideration for their shares, in order to further encourage shareholders to accept the offer.

Rival Australian-listed bidder Murchison Metals Ltd. proposed a share swap merger with Midwest worth approximately AUD 1.6 billion ($1.5 billion) on May 26. The company is currently in the process of preparing a detailed proposal and seeking the necessary approvals for implementing the merger.

Although Murchison's merger proposal has won the recommendation of Midwest's board, Sinosteel's shareholding in Midwest has increased from 20.58 percent to 43.62 percent after it declared its AUD 6.38 ($5.99) per share offer as unconditional on May 30.

Midwest, an Australian-listed iron ore miner based in Western Australia's Pilbara region, owns several principal iron ore mining assets. Its Weld Range project has a minimum designed output of 15 million tons of ore per annum over a 15 year-period, and is scheduled to commence operations in early 2011.