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Australias Atlas lands on Chinas iron ore map
Monday, Jan 19, 2009.

Australia's newest iron ore miner, Atlas Iron (AGO.AX), is expanding production, urged on by Chinese buyers keen to weaken the bargaining power of the big producers such as Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) ahead of annual price talks.

Atlas Iron said on Thursday its expansion plans remained supported by demand from China, although steel mills are pushing for a 40 percent cut in contract prices from Rio Tinto, Brazil's Vale (VALE5.SA) and BHP Billiton (BHP.AX)(BLT.L) for 2009.

"There's something of a chasm out there -- there's a huge disconnect between the financial pages and ... and what my marketing team is hearing. We've got 10 keen expressions of interest yesterday from people wanting to buy iron ore," Atlas Chief Executive David Flanagan said.

Atlas's expansion plans fly in the face of cuts in iron ore output revealed by Rio Tinto in its fourth-quarter production report on Thursday in response to Asian steel mills deferring shipments as a slowing global economy cuts demand. [ID:nSYD376178]

Flanagan said the company was still targeting exports of six million tonnes per annum in 2010 and growing to 12 million tonnes per annum by 2012 as it brought new deposits into production at its Pilbara operations in north western Australia.



Source: Reuters