Interesting reading from this:...

Interesting reading from this: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/nippon-steel-hunt-more-coking-coal-iron-ore-assets-executive-3954541, (thanks beau1976)

TOKYO : Nippon Steel, the world's No.4 steelmaker, will keep on hunting for stakes in coking coal and iron ore mines to ensure a stable supply of essential raw materials and mitigate the potential impact of price volatility, its executive said.

A Glencore-led consortium, including Nippon Steel, sealed one of the mining sector's biggest deals in years this month, agreeing to buy Canadian miner Teck Resources' steelmaking coal unit for $9 billion, the Japanese company will pay around $1.34 billion for a 20 per cent stake.

"Coking coal prices are expected to rise as supply will get tighter in the medium term as there has been little investment in mines due to carbon-neutral push," executive vice president Takahiro Mori told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday, "So, it's extremely important to secure our own interests," he said.

Japan's top steelmaker already owns stakes in several coking coal mines, which account for about a fifth of its annual coal imports totaling 25 million metric tons.

The latest deal will boost that share to around 30 per cent. About 60 per cent of Nippon Steel's products are sold for term customers with a mechanism that adjusts selling prices to raw materials costs, but 40 per cent are commodity products that are affected by steel market fluctuation."We would like to raise the self-sufficiency ratio to around 40 per cent in order to neutralize the impact of raw material prices on market products," he said, referring to both coal and iron ore.

Hopefully our illustrious, technically minded people in charge are all aware of this