io contracts, page-2

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2008-7-4 08:33:00 a.m. HKT, XFNA
BHP secures iron ore price in line with Rio-paper

SYDNEY, July 4 (Reuters) - Global miner BHP Billiton Ltd/Plc

"BHP Billiton has settled for a price rise to its iron ore supply contracts to Chinese customers that is in line with those struck by rival Rio Tinto last week," the business daily said in an unsourced report.

A spokeswoman for BHP, which is bidding around $150 billion in shares to take over Rio, said BHP had yet to make any announcement on the outcome of its talks with Chinese steelmills and declined further comment.

Rio Tinto said on Tuesday that all of its Asian customers had now agreed to an up to 96.5 percent price hike for ore delivered between April 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009 -- higher than the first round of price rises agreed by Brazil's Vale

BHP's refusal to pre-set the price of its ore has irked customers such as Baosteel <600019.SS> of China, Nippon Steel Corp <5401.T> and South Korea's POSCO <005490.KS>, which are already fuming over its plans to buy Rio and create a super mining house with even more sway over resource supplies.

(Reporting by Mark Bendeich; editing by Jonathan Standing)

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