CHINA China on Friday took a defiant stand ahead of annual iron ore contract price negotiations with global miners, rejecting proposals for a sharp rise in the price of the key steelmaking ingredient and insisting that Beijing would not “blindly follow” prices set in other importing countries such as Japan and South Korea.
Annual negotiations over so-called “benchmark” iron ore prices for the 2009-2010 contract year broke down in June after the miners tried to force Beijing to accept the same 33 per cent price cut previously agreed with other east Asian steel mills. Since then, most big mills in China have been purchasing iron ore at the Japanese and Korean price on a provisional basis, despite the Chinese side’s demand for a larger discount. Others have been buying from the spot market, often at higher prices.
