BHP Billiton's leverage gets results but it also gets under some people's skin

摘要

Both the magnitude of BHP Billiton's muscle and the intensity of resentment for its coking coal pricing policies were on full display this past week. BHPB pushed through a cargo-by-cargo deal with ArcelorMittal, the world's most prolific steelmaker -maybe with other European buyers - at $332/metric tonne FOBT for April delivery. That's a slight premium to the effective global benchmark for the April-June. But it's not the price that gets your attention as much as the mere fact that buyers are acknowledging the obvious - BHPB has the leverage, at least for the time being. Take the Brazilian steelmakers as an example. Buyers in Brazil showed enough foresight in January to do 6-month contracts. It was "a smart move on their part," one major coking coal producer said, and as a result, "they're in pretty good shape."