Chinese steel giant Baosteel Group announced on February 28 that it has signed a long-term coking coal supply agreement with Anglo-Australian mining and resources group Rio Tinto, with Baosteel thus becoming Rio Tinto's first Chinese long-term buyer of coal.
According to the agreement, Rio Tinto is to supply coking coal of good quality to Baosteel from the current year, over a period of three years.
Baosteel has not disclosed the supply volume involved.
Rio Tinto supplies around 13.6 million mt of coal per annum, accounting for a 5.7 percent share of the total global market.