Rio Tinto upbeat on China capacity cuts

The head of global mining giant Rio Tinto Group Plc said China's move to trim overcapacity in its steel industry would benefit his group and others like it, instead of hurting their business interests.

CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques said in Beijing that China's plans to cut more overcapacity was a good opportunity for the company because steel plants would resort to utilizing high-quality assets and higher-quality raw materials.

Jacques, head of the world's second-biggest mining company, said the government would shut down smaller and more polluting blast furnaces while switching to using the newest, largest blast furnaces.