A senior Chinese steel industry official said Friday a new alliance between Rio Tinto Plc (RTP) and BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) could not yet be called a "new monopoly" in the iron ore market, but warned that anti-monopoly measures were available if monopolistic tendencies began to show.

"At this point, it's merely a joint venture," said Zou Jian, executive director of the Chinese Iron and Steel Association.

"We can't call it a new monopoly yet," he said. "But if it does become a new monopoly, there will be anti-monopoly measures available to deal with it."

Rio Tinto is entering into a 50:50 iron ore joint venture with BHP that spells the end of its planned US$19.5 billion alliance with Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco.

The association, for now, does not believe the Rio-BHP alliance would affect 2009 iron ore term price talks, still ongoing between global miners and Chinese steel mills.

"I don't believe there will be much effect on China on the iron ore price, because China's too big of a market," Zou said. "That in itself is an advantage."

-By Chuin-Wei Yap, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588 5848; chuin-wei.yap@dowjones.com