Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) remains positive on its business outlook despite the softening market price for iron ore, the premier raw material that has been fuelling China's incredible industrialisation pace.

But with the slow down of the Chinese economy and the rationalisation of the country's steelmaking industry this year, prices of iron ore started plummeting after the high of about $190 per tonne that was recorded early last year.

To date, the product's market price stands at around $135 per tonne, a level that FMG chief executive Nev Power told ABC on Monday could further slide down this year.

However, Mr Power is convinced that iron ore prices will remain profitable and should close down the current year at $110 per tonne, which he stressed, is sustainable enough as far as FMG's long-term business goal is concerned.

Despite China's relatively weak manufacturing figures issued Friday last week, Mr Power said that the world's second biggest economy will keep its growth target of eight percent this year, "which we see is really strong growth in steel."

Australia's iron ore miners, for the better part of the decade, have been reliant to China's constantly expanding steelmaking industry and amidst the corrections being implemented by Beijing in the past months, some $20 billion of new steelmaking projects have been approved by the Chinese government so far.

These actions, according to the FMG chief, showed that while "the Chinese economy is going through a short-term fluctuation, overall it's growing very strongly."

Such prospects boost FMG's expansion plans, which aim to raise its iron ore output to 155 million tonnes by 2013.

Upon reaching that goal, Mr Power hinted on Sunday that FMG may have to follow the ways of its fellow iron ore miners, mainly BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, which have announced possible revisions or reviews on their production growth plans.

"We will be pausing at 155 million tonnes and looking at the market conditions, paying down debt, getting our balance sheet in a position where we've got the capacity to expand," the FMG chief was reported by The Australian as saying yesterday during his speech before the Australian Stockbrokers Association conference held in Melbourne.

He admitted that the rethink was partly influenced by the global economic condition and the present trend unfolding in China.

But Mr Power reiterated too that FMG will maintain its growth path amidst expansion downgrades that could peak at around 40 percent.

The plan includes paying off dividends to FMG investors, which have been airing grave concerns on the miner's aggressive expansion blueprint along with their demand that the company return some cash to shareholders, Mr Power said.

"People have invested in Fortescue to take advantage of the massive step-up we've gone through and of course we want to reward them at the end of that," the company head added.