BHP's iron ore price up 99.7pc Stephen Bell From: Dow Jones Newswires April 07, 2010 12:19PM
BHP Billiton has secured a 99.7 per cent price rise from its Asian iron ore customers for the April-June quarter from a year ago, Macquarie Bank said today.
Citing steel industry sources in Japan, the bank's London-based commodities team said that BHP's $US120.08 a tonne settlement for Pilbara fines iron ore "represents a massive 99.7 per cent rise over 2009 Japanese fiscal year contracts".
Taking into account current freight rates, the settlement would result in Australian iron ore landing at around $US131.50/tonne on a delivered Asia basis, a 22 per cent discount to current spot levels, the bank said.
Macquarie said it understands that prices for BHP's "lump" iron ore were settled at approximately $US135/tonne for the March-June quarter, 88 per cent above 2009 levels.
Late last month, BHP said it had reached agreement with a significant number of customers in Asia to move existing iron ore contracts that were previously priced annually onto shorter term pricing arrangements.
However, the Melbourne-based miner has never quantified the extent of the price rise.
