Reuters quoted a top Chinese executive said Chinese steel mills are to offer a new proposal in benchmark iron ore price talks less than a week after their rivals in Japan and South Korea offered to pay more than expected.
Mr Luo Bingsheng vice chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association said "We have decided on a new proposal for the negotiation, but I cannot tell you details.”
He however clarified that “But the new proposal would not water down China's demand for a drop of at least 40% in iron ore prices, winding the clock back to 2007.”
He added that “The iron ore price should fall to the 2007 level. This is still our main target in the negotiation."
In 2009 China, the only major producer with higher steel output than last year is enjoying a flood of iron ore imports, thanks to collapsed world prices, cheap freight rates relatively high cost domestic ore and its uniquely buoyant steel sector. But Chinese mills were stunned last week when Rio Tinto agreed a 33% price cut with Japan's Nippon Steel and JFE Steel Corp and South Korea POSCO putting pressure on China to compromise or rely on spot market prices staying low for the next 12 months.