Another Japanese firm shuns Chinese contract

Another big Japanese company has turned down the chance of a deal with the Chinese, the second one to do so in two days. Japan's biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel Corporation said it had decided to turn down a Chinese request to take part in a plan to keep China's faltering Baoshan steel complex alive. Tuesday the Mitsubishi industrial group canceled a $405 million contract with the Chinese.

Trade relations between Japan and China have become strained since Chinese authorities suspended several contracts with Japanese companies f or help in building major industrial plants in China.