Wednesday, 23 Feb 2011
Japan's third biggest steelmaker Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd said that it had received a proposal from BHP Billiton on a new pricing scheme for supplying coking coal after April.
A company spokesman declined to give details of the proposal by saying “We can't comment on details of our discussions.”
The Nikkei business daily reported last week that BHP, the world's biggest diversified miner, has notified major Japanese steelmakers that from April it wanted monthly pricing of coking coal to replace quarterly pricing.
A shift in pricing would likely further squeeze steelmakers, which have already been reeling from a steep fall in profit margins since they adopted quarterly pricing for major inputs of iron ore and coal in April last year.
A company spokesman declined to give details of the proposal by saying “We can't comment on details of our discussions.”
The Nikkei business daily reported last week that BHP, the world's biggest diversified miner, has notified major Japanese steelmakers that from April it wanted monthly pricing of coking coal to replace quarterly pricing.
A shift in pricing would likely further squeeze steelmakers, which have already been reeling from a steep fall in profit margins since they adopted quarterly pricing for major inputs of iron ore and coal in April last year.
(Sourced from Bloomberg)
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