Baosteel and JFE eye iron ore price drop

Baosteel and JFE eye iron ore price drop

China's Baoshan Iron & Steel Company (Baosteel) and Japan's JFE Steel Corporation (JFE) expect lower iron ore prices in 2006. According to Xu Lejiang, the president of China's largest steelmaker Baosteel, major global iron ore suppliers based in Brazil and Australia should lower their iron ore contract prices next year because steel prices keep falling. Meanwhile, according to Hajime Bada, the president of Japan's second largest steel producer JFE, the price of both iron ore and coking coal will fall in 2006. The global iron ore suppliers will initiate price talks for 2006 contracts with their Chinese and Japanese customers in October. Due to high fixed-contract prices of global steelmakers, China increased its iron ore imports from India over spot market prices rapidly in the first eight months.