China, the world's largest buyer of iron ore, blocked BHP Billiton Ltd and Rio Tinto Group from selling the raw material on the spot market to press them to settle contract prices, research company CBI China Co said.
The China Iron & Steel Association (
Rio and BHP are locked in talks to settle annual contract prices with Chinese steelmakers, as Rio sought to get more than the 71 percent price gain won by rival Cia Vale do Rio Doce.
The Chinese government two years ago imposed price caps on imports in an unsuccessful attempt to limit increases.
"It shows the resentment of the Chinese mills toward BHP and Rio for selling more iron ore on spot market, instead of concluding a contract as in the past," said Helen Lau, a Shanghai-based analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc.
Rio, based in London, sold iron ore on the spot market at as much as US$190 a tonne in December, more than twice the equivalent of US$85 a tonne it sold under contract, it said then.
It plans to triple iron ore sales in the cash market to 15 million tonnes a year, up from 4.5 million tonnes last year.
Around 15 percent of BHP and Rio's ore sales to China have been sold on the spot market in past years, Du said.
Qi Xiangdong (
Officials at the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals & Chemicals Importers and Exporters were not available for comment. BHP spokeswoman Samantha Evans declined to comment.
"Our position is we are still involved in pricing discussions," Gervase Greene, Rio spokesman, said by telephone from Perth. "We have said we expected to sell up to 15 million tonnes on the spot market this year and that hasn't changed."
Iron ore sales from smaller companies in Australia have not been blocked, Michael Kiernan, chairman of the Perth-based producer Territory Resources Ltd, said yesterday.
"It's a move aimed to press miners back to contracted iron-ore price talks and to gain a foothold," Du said. "China doesn't like spot sales because the spot prices are more volatile and potentially more upside risky."
Rio has been pressing Chinese steelmakers to accept a freight premium to reflect the lower cost of shipping ore to Asia from Australia than Brazil, where Vale is based. Chinese steelmakers have rejected the demand, Anshan Iron & Steel Group (
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS