Nippon Steel Corp., the world's second-biggest maker of the metal, wants to invest in Cia. Vale do Rio Doce's $1.4 billion planned coal mine in Mozambique to provide raw materials as costs rise.

Tokyo-based Nippon Steel told Brazil's Vale, the world's biggest iron ore exporter, it's interested in the mine, Shoji Muneoka, who became president last month, said in an interview. Coking coal prices tripled this year to a record.

``In this extraordinary circumstance of soaring material prices, we have great interest in alternative sources,'' the 62 year-old executive said in Tokyo. ``We like to invest if we have opportunities.''

Nippon Steel expects profit to fall to a five-year low as it can't raise prices enough to cover higher material costs. Surging costs prompted ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, to buy stakes in mining assets.

``I don't think Nippon Steel's investment in resources will be big enough to give them bargaining power,'' Takashi Murata, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research said by telephone today in Tokyo. ``But it's better to have some resources themselves for secure supply.''

Nippon Steel rose 0.2 percent to 690 yen at 12:45 p.m. in Tokyo, taking its decline to 17 percent in the past year compared with a 51 percent gain in ArcelorMittal, on concern the company can't get customers to agree to price gains. The company lost 1.9 trillion yen ($18 billion) in market value since last year's high in July, leaving it vulnerable to a takeover, Muneoka said.