SYDNEY — Debate is heating up in Australia over how the world’s largest supplier of iron ore and metallurgical coal should respond to a growing push for more environmentally friendly metals, especially in China, the country’s biggest customer.
Last week, Andrew Forrest, boss of the country’s third-largest iron ore miner Fortescue, warned rivals that the Pilbara region — the heartland of the country’s iron industry — risked becoming a “wasteland” if the sector did not adapt to China’s move to close down blast furnaces and adopt cleaner steelmaking alternatives using Brazilian or African ores.
