National

Regional

Taiwan, HK, Macao

Special Coverage

Focus

Society

Profiles

CISA: Australia's FMG cuts iron ore prices

By Zhang Qi and Yu Hongyan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-08-17 10:44

China's Baosteel, China's largest steel maker negotiating on behalf of the country's steel makers, has struck a deal on iron ore import prices with Australia's third largest miner, FMG, the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) announced Monday.

Related readings:  China to back CISA in iron ore talks  CISA stance hurts small steel mills  CISA: Iron ore import pricing proposal still on  China's crude steel output to top 500m tons in 2009  Iron ore price negotiation still underway: CISA

FMG agreed to supply iron ore at a unified price, meaning all Chinese smelters will be able to purchase a certain kind of iron ore at the same price.

Fine ores will be sold at 94 cents per dry metric tonne unit, down 35.02 percent from the price last year. Lump ores will be sold at 100 cents per dry metric tonne unit , down 50.42 percent from last year's price. These are all "free on board" prices.

The contract will last from July 1 to December 31, 2009.

CISA also said that all future iron ore pricing deals will be made on a unified price basis, and will last from January 1 to December 31 each year. CISA also said that it hopes to reach similar deals with the world's top three miners.

FMG's annual output capacity is 50 million tons - one tenth of China's total demand, which is roughly 500 million tons, according to CISA.