"Interfax-China reported that steel product prices rose steadily for around two months from October 2009 and the price of imported iron ore increased accordingly. The average reference CIF price for iron ore jumped from less than CNY 700 per ton to over CNY 1,000 per tonne during the period while the average reference CIF price for Indian iron ore grading 63.5% hit a high of USD 135 per tonne. As a result, a number of international research institutes modified their original forecasts that the 2010 long-term contracted iron ore benchmark price, between the three iron ore giants and Chinese steel mills, would rise by more than 20% from the 2009 price agreed with Japanese steel mills."
