Indian iron ore miners willing to supply to China to overcome Vale crisis

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

29 Sep 2008

PTI reported that Indian mining industry has assured adequate supply of iron ore to Chinese steel mills, which are reported to have boycotted the raw material’s supply from Brazilian mining major Vale after it asked for a price revision in the contracted prices for 2008-09. Mr R K Sharma secretary general Federation of Indian Minerals Associations said that we are ready to do our bit to relieve the Chinese mills and will try to fill the gap created after the steel association there decided not to import iron ore from Vale.
Mr Shan Shanghua executive secretary general of CISA was quoted by country’s online news portal Chinastakes.com as saying that China will not import any iron ore from Vale as the Brazilian company was in unilateral breach of the contract. Chinese steel makers won’t accept Vale’s price hike and added they would look for domestic miners and other alternate options.
Earlier this year, Vale had agreed on a long-term contract with Chinese steel companies for supply of iron ore for the present year. However, it recently asked for an upward price revision in the contracted prices, which sparked discontent in the Chinese steel sector.
Indian miners exported over 90 million tonnes of iron ore to Chinese steel mills in the spot market in the last financial year. However, with the government imposing a 15% ad valorem duty on iron ore exports in June, miners say the shipments have declined by nearly 30%.

Source: Steel Guru