The China Iron and Steel Association said Tuesday it strongly opposes the iron ore joint venture announced Friday by Rio Tinto PLC (RTP) and BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), according to a statement on the association's Web site.

"The joint venture agreement goes in the direction of a monopoly," the statement said, adding the association would "resist monopolistic ways."

The association suggested China should have a say in global iron ore trading as it is Australia's largest customer for iron ore exports.

"The BHP-Rio deal is tied to Chinese companies' interests," the association said.

In addition, the statement also warned local iron ore traders from seeking to profit from speculation in the iron ore trade.

The association said it would suspend the iron ore import licenses of those found to have resold imported ore at a profit.

China has sought to curb high ore imports in recent months; preliminary figures from the Ministry of Transportation released Tuesday suggest the country could have imported 55.5 million metric tons of iron ore in May, up 25% on year.

The statement also said iron ore trading centers, which were set up as a transparent pricing mechanism, violate China's national steel industry plan enacted earlier this year.

China's first iron ore trading center, which seeks to set an iron ore price index, opened last month in the Chinese port city of Rizhao in Shandong province.

The association said China's regulators should terminate the trading center's business license.

The association's latest statement adds to a growing list of sharply worded official postures forbidding efforts to break an impasse with global miners over the 2009-10 iron ore term price.

The association's secretary-general, Shan Shanghua, told Chinese media last week Chinese steelmakers had no right to negotiate iron ore prices individually with overseas miners and any separate agreements reached with miners would be invalid.

He added China wouldn't accept any iron ore term price cut from miners less than 40% of last year's benchmark. Miners have set the benchmark rate with most Asian customers at a 33% cut.

-Juan Chen and Chuin-Wei Yap contributed to this report, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588 5848; juan.chen@dowjones.com