December 03, 2008

Nippon Steel refutes coking coal price settlement news

Nippon Steel Corp said that talks to settle contract coking coal prices are continuing, denying a Nikkei newspaper report that it agreed to pay three times more for the raw material.

Mr Masato Suzuki a spokesman of Nippon Steel said that “Nothing has been decided in coal price negotiations with raw material suppliers.”

Nikkei English News, without citing anyone, had reported that Nippon Steel is likely to accept BHP Billiton's plan to triple the price of coking coal. It had reported that BHP plans to increase the price of the material for the first time in three years to USD 300 per tonne from USD 98 per tonne and other miners such as Rio Tinto etc are likely to follow BHP's price increase.