Leading miner BHP Billiton Ltd has announced that it has agreed to sell coking coal on short-term contracts to customers in Europe, China, India and Japan, breaking away from annual pricing.
The company said in a statement that it had 'reached terms for a significant portion of its hard coking coal volumes for 2010, based on a structural change to shorter term market-based pricing for the contract period.’
These settlements reflect the company’s commitment to achieving market clearing prices over time across all its bulk commodities, it said.
It’s the first time a three-month supply accord for the steelmaking ingredient has been signed, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. BHP, which controls the world’s biggest exporter of coking coal, has been pushing for shorter-term contracts to benefit from surging cash prices, driven by Asian demand.
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