MELBOURNE (Dow Jones)--OneSteel Ltd. (OST.AU) said Tuesday there are signs another price rise could be on the cards in this year's round of iron ore contract negotiations but it is too early to make firm predictions. OneSteel is an exporter of iron ore, and chief executive Geoff Plummer said demand from steel mills is growing faster than the supply response from miners. "The fundamentals continue to look pretty good in terms of selling the iron ore," he told reporters following the company's full year results announcement. Rising costs carved A$159 million from OneSteel's earnings in the year ended June 30, and Plummer said higher scrap costs had been responsible for about A$40 million of that. Scrap prices have been close to record highs and Plummer said demand for scrap looks set to rise in the short term. "If anything, I think there is probably some slight upward pressure on scrap prices in the near term rather than downward," he said.
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