China has condemned BHP Billiton’s plan to take over Rio Tinto, its rival mining giant, as the creation of “an even bigger monopoly”.

The steelmakers of the People’s Republic have added their voices to a worldwide chorus of protest against BHP Billiton’s project, which they fear would enable the two companies to corner the Asian trade in iron ore.

Mounting alarm in Beijing came after warnings on Monday in Tokyo and in Brussels, where European steelmakers lobby urged the European Commission to block the takeover.

Fresh protests are dogging the progress of Marius Kloppers, the BHP chief executive, as he tours Far Eastern capitals.

He is on a charm offensive, hoping to quell the increasing anxiety of BHP’s Asian customers that the mining mega-merger would leave them at the mercy of a single Anglo-Australian supplier.

A day after Japanese steelmakers condemned the merger plan, the China Iron and Steel Association, a government-affiliated organisation, published a commentary in which it judged that the merger would create “an even bigger monopoly”.

The organisation represents the world’s biggest iron ore importers and China sources the lion’s share of its ore from Australia, where BHP and Rio operate adjacent mines and infrastructure in the Pilbara region.

“The merger is not good for global steel companies,” the Chinese association said. “Iron ore production overconcentration will not be helpful for the long-term development of normal trade.”

Mr Kloppers is hoping to convince his customers that a merger of the two companies would unlock resources in Western Australia, enabling them to combine their infrastructure and bring more ore to the market.

At present three companies account for almost three quarters of the global trade in iron ore: BHP, Rio and the Brazilian miner CVRD.

Together BHP and Rio would bring together 36 per cent of the market, a concentration that Eurofer, the European steelmakers’ lobby, believes would create a duopoly with CVRD.

Gordon Moffatt, Eurofer’s director-general, intends to make representations to the European Commission this week. “We will be urging the Commission to take a negative view on it,” he said.

His initiative has the backing of the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI), which on Monday issued a terse condemnation of BHP’s plan.

The IISI, which represents 180 steel producers, urged competition authorities to review the BHP-Rio proposal.

Ian Christmas, the organisation’s secretary-general, said that he supported consolidation but not monopolies, noting that the world’s largest steelmaker had less than 15 per cent of global production while the top three iron ore miners had 70 per cent.

He said: “This merger is not in the public interest and should not be allowed to proceed.”

Mr Kloppers’ whistlestop Asian tour arrived in Seoul yesterday, where he was expected to meet Lee Ku Taek, chief executive of South Korea’s biggest steelmaker Posco, and officials from Hyundai Steel.

Posco buys 70 per cent of its ore from BHP, Rio and CVRD.

Even as Mr Kloppers arrived in Tokyo on Monday, he was greeted with a strong critique of his project by Nippon Iron and Steel Federation, one of the most powerful Japanese industry groups.

The Federation called the BHP-Rio merger an “obstacle” to a healthy metals market.

Hajime Bada, chairman of the federation, said that the merged entity would control 60 per cent of Japan’s iron ore imports and he expressed concern that “such a merger would impede a healthy market mechanism.”

BHP has sought to allay fears by promising more production and a more transparent pricing mechanism, such as a benchmark index replacing the benchmark prices set by the annual round of price negotiations between miners and steelmakers.

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