Fortescue Mining hopes its calls for an inquiry into the iron ore market will generate enough public pressure to force rivals BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto to rein in their expansion plans.
Chief executive Nev Power said despite the call for a parliamentary inquiry into the sector, which has gained some support in Canberra, Fortescue isn't advocating government imposed production caps for its competitors.
"This is not about interfering with what individual companies do," he said.
Instead, the company wants a greater public focus on the strategies of Rio Tinto and BHP, which are continuing to ramp up supply despite softer demand from China, in light of the sharp fall in iron ore prices.
"We are hoping that this discussion and debate raises the level of awareness and, yes, does impact on the strategies of companies going forward so that there is a more holistic view taken around corporate responsibility," he said.
Iron ore is currently trading below $US60 a tonne, less than half of what the commodity fetched at the start of 2014.
That's had a significant impact on the economy, hurting government revenue, both West Australian and federally, forcing higher cost miners to shut down operations and delivering a painful blow to the mining services sector.
Fortescue is more vulnerable to the price slide than its major competitors because it is a higher cost producer and, unlike the diversified BHP and Rio, is solely focused on iron ore.
But Mr Power said there was no oversupply in the market at present and said the price fall had been driven by expectations that Rio and BHP will flood the market.
"Our view is that this the sentiment being driven on the futures market by this continued threat of oversupply," he said.
"Our concern is that there is deliberate action being taken to drive the price down to restructure the industry to concentrate supply."
Fortescue's call for an inquiry has been taken up by independent senator Nick Xenophon and has received some support from Prime Minister Tony Abbott, though BHP and Rio have come out fighting.
BHP chief executive Andrew MacKenzie has described the inquiry as a waste of money, while the head of Rio's iron ore operations, Andrew Harding said it was a threat to free trade and open markets.
But Mr Power argues that the iron ore market isn't "free" anyway, with four producers - BHP, Rio, Fortescue and Brazil's Vale accounting for most of the world's production.
"Just four companies control 60 per cent of the global iron ore supply, that's more concentrated than the oil market under OPEC," he said.
"So this is not a freely competitive market, it is a very concentrated market."
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