According to Japanese and Australian media, Australian iron and coal producer
BHP Billiton settled high quality hard
coking coal contract prices for 2006 with its Japanese customers at $115/ton level indicating around 12 percent decrease.
BHP's customers in the deal are JFE Steel and Sumitomo Metal Industries. Market analysts accept the agreement level as a strong one. Some analysts were claiming that any price over $100/ton would be accepted as a good one.
The price of
coking coal was around $80/ton in 2004 but increased up to $125/ton in 2005.