Cleveland, Ohio-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. announced Tuesday that it has entered into a new agreement with West Chester, Ohio-based AK Steel to supply iron ore pellets from 2014 through 2023. The new agreement includes minimum and maximum volume iron ore pellet purchases from Cliffs, as outlined in the agreement. Cliffs will continue to supply AK Steel with iron ore pellets for the remainder of 2013 and 2014 under the previous agreement between the two companies.
Also, the new agreement provides a pricing mechanism for the volumes sold in the contracted years. The annual price will be determined by a formula-based pricing mechanism, where the annual price is adjusted by multiple factors including seaborne pricing for iron ore and certain producer price indices.