Hard coking coal benchmark set in Japan/Will European steel mills push for lower prices?

摘要

"It's about the best result we could have hoped for, very welcome news indeed," a Canadian coal official said referring to BHP Billiton's hard met coal settlement with Japanese steel producers. BHP Billiton negotiated a 129.00 US dollars/tonne FOB benchmark for its premium quality hard met brands, Peak Downs and Saraji for FY2009. While the price is down 57 percent from last year's benchmark price of 300.00 US dollars per tonne, the settlement is considered a major achievement for producers in the current global economic climate. Many analysts forecasted a hard met settlement in the 1 10.00 US dollars/tonne FOB range, while others did not expect the price to exceed 100.00 US dollars per tonne.