China’s leading steelmaker, Baosteel (寶鋼), said yesterday it had agreed to a near doubling of some iron ore prices with Australian mining group BHP Billiton.
The agreement matches major price hikes already secured by rival Rio Tinto from China and other Asian customers, and could underline concerns of higher inflation driven by the global commodity boom.
Baosteel said in a statement it had “concluded the iron ore price negotiations for 2008” with BHP, adding that hikes of 79.88 percent to 96.5 percent had been agreed compared with last year.
Baosteel traditionally sets the price for China’s other steel producers for internationally purchased iron ore, of which the price has soared because of growing demand amid a construction boom in China and India.
“We are happy to have been able to settle the prices announced today with one of our most important customers,” Marcus Randolph, BHP’s ferrous and coal chief executive, said in statement.
“And we’ve been particularly pleased with the spirit in which both Baosteel and BHP Billiton undertook negotiations,” he said.
The deal brought an end to this year’s long and intense negotiations between Chinese steelmakers and the world’s top three iron ore miners.
Brazilian miner Vale earlier this year agreed iron ore price rises of 65 percent to around 70 percent for this year.
Traditionally, China paid Brazilian and Australian suppliers the same amount.
But this year the Australian miners demanded more, saying their iron ore was better value because it was higher quality and cost less to transport.
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