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Brazilian Vale to sell iron ore at higher price

By Hao Yan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-01-04 17:21

The Brazilian iron ore exporter Vale SA (Vale) will raise the iron ore export price to China by 8.8 percent to $149.2 per ton in the first quarter, Reuters reported Monday.

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Vale will calculate the price according to the average Platts' Iron Ore Index Fe benchmark IODBZ00-PLT from Sept 1 to Nov 30, Reuters said.

The imported iron ore market is highly monopolized, and the price jumps have been pulling back China's steel industry, National Business Daily reported quoting Luo Tiejun, deputy director of the Department of Raw Material Industry under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The country's steel mills made the lowest profits in 2010 among all the industries -- even below a half of the average profitability -- and a large amount of these companies are losing money, according to the newspaper.

"China has been depending on iron ore imports for a long time. When the big three iron ore miners raise the price, steel companies have to push up the steel price," an analyst said.

According to earlier reports, Rio Tinto Group announced to Chinese buyers that its iron ore price will rise 7.6 percent in the first quarter of 2011.