A research website for the steel industry in China launched the China Iron Ore Index, Beijing Times reported on Tuesday.

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Luo Bingsheng, deputy Party chief secretary of the China Iron and Steel Association, said China has had doubts on the IODEX for a long time. IODEX is the price index used by the three major global iron ore producers. It is released by international metal information service company Platts. 

Luo said IODEX cannot show the real price change of iron ore imported by China because it only adopts prices of a certain port in China and records the inquiry prices. While the new China Iron Ore Index is the weighted mean of spot iron ore prices of both the imports and domestic production.