Zou Jian, a CISA official, expected the country's iron ore imports to fall to 350 million tonnes this year.
The CISA's confidence was also firmed up by China's iron ore inventory of 100 million tonnes, which, CISA officials say, could feed domestic mills for three months.
China could also turn to iron ore miners other than the foreign giants or increasing domestic iron ore output.
If the talks failed, CISA general secretary Shan Shanghua said earlier that China might opt for spot market purchases or slash steel output.
In contrast, iron ore suppliers are betting on resumed demand boosted by China's massive infrastructure construction and improvement in the real estate sector, said analysts.
They are confident that China's steel industry has bottomed out and showing signs of recovery this year because China has seen continuous steel price rises since April and growing steel output, says Hu Kai, a Shanghai-based analyst with Umetal Research Institute.
The outlook is improving, which would be a bargaining chip for major miners, he says.
In May, Chinese mills produced 46.46 million tonnes of steel, up from 46.01 million tonnes in May last year, spurred by the 4-trillion-yuan (585 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package.
The May figure was higher than the 30-month record low of 35.18 million tonnes in November, when the global economic downturn forced Chinese steel makers to cut output.
Additionally, China's large and medium-sized steel mills turned profits in May for the first time since October.
The World Bank raised the 2009 economic growth forecast for China to 7.2 percent from a year earlier, up from a 6.5-percent forecast in March. China's manufacturing has been expanding, with its Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rising to 53.2 percent in June. It was the fourth straight month that the official PMI stood above 50 percent, indicating expansion.
Analysts say these improvements send positive signals to major miners.
China's climbing iron ore imports lead major mining firms to believe that demand is booming. Imports totaled 242 million tonnes in the first five months, a 26-percent gain from the same period last year.
The surge in imports might undermine the push for a bigger price cut, says Lange Information Consultation Co. analyst Zhang Lin.
However, the CISA interprets the huge iron ore imports differently, saying it is a result of speculative buying by traders and small mills.
