Iron ore hunger drove Japan’s monumental $8.4b Pilbara buy

Peter Ker, Mark Wembridge and Jessica Sier

Feb 20, 2025 – 7.48pm

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Japanese giant Mitsui has made the biggest investment in its 78-year history paying $US5.34 billion ($8.4 billion) for a stake in the Rhodes Ridge iron ore project in a bid to secure guaranteed reserves of the resource to make steel and counter the rise of China.

As Canberra and Tokyo forge close defence ties to combat the growing threat of China in the Pacific, Japanese corporations have refocused their capital on Western Australia’s Pilbara, buying $10 billion worth of coal and iron ore mines in the past six months.

Peter Ker covers resource companies for The Australian Financial Review, based in Melbourne.

Mark Wembridge covers resource companies for The Australian Financial Review, based in Perth. He formerly worked for the Financial Times in London and Hong Kong.

Jessica Sier is the North Asia Correspondent for The Australian Financial Review. She is based in Tokyo, Japan. Jessica has previously written on technology, global capital markets and economics.