Nippon Steel Corp. wants to invest in Cia. Vale do Rio Doce's $1.4 billion planned coal mine in Mozambique to provide raw materials as costs rise.
Nippon Steel told Brazil's Vale, the world's biggest iron ore exporter, that it is interested in the mine, said Shoji Muneoka, who became president last month. Coking coal prices tripled this year to a record.
"In this extraordinary circumstance of soaring material prices, we have great interest in alternative sources," Muneoka, 62, said in Tokyo. "We like to invest if we have opportunities."