Australia's iron ore industry faces threat of parliamentary inquiry

Sydney

THE huge iron ore industry in Australia faces the threat of a parliamentary inquiry amid claims the world's biggest miners, including BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, are flooding the market to wipe out smaller competitors.

The steel-making commodity is the nation's largest export with Australia accounting for 60 per cent of the world's sea-borne supply, and the slumping price has hit government revenues hard.

Budget figures last week showed that Australia's forecast tax receipts will be cut by A$52 billion (S$55 billion) over the four years to 2017-18, largely driven by the plunging iron ore price.

The price weakness has been exacerbated by the world's biggest exporters of the commodity - BHP, Rio, and Brazil's Vale - who make up the majority of the market and have kept lifting product…