News: Rio Tinto drops plan to push out supplier payments, page-4

I think it was a little too ruthless, probably good that they have reconsidered it. While I like the business sense behind it, they also want to develop long term relationships with suppliers so it is a balancing act between using their market size to get optimal terms versus souring relationships and potentially financially crippling some suppliers which could cost more over the longer term. I think a more gradual approach would work better, an extra 5-10 days, a couple of years later 5-10 more days again, etc.