On March 9, Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto stated that it has not inked any agreement to change the period of the 2010 iron ore contract from April 1-March 31 to January 1-December 31.
The miner has thus refuted reports in the Chinese media on March 7, which cited Hebei Iron and Steel Group general manager Wang Yifang, to the effect that an agreement had been reached to change the benchmark contract period for 2010 to January 1-December 31 from April 1-March 31 in past years.