Certain steel mills in China have agreed to take contracted lump from BHP Billiton using a monthly pricing scheme, after failing to agree on a quarterly premium, sources told Steel First.

Elections in two key Southeast Asian countries have dampened steel demand and prices in recent weeks, despite the rising cost of iron ore.

China Beijing International Mining Exchange (CBMX) said it will transfer its physical iron ore trading platform to the newly-formed Beijing Iron Ore Trading Center Corporation (Corex).

Shares in EMED Mining jumped as much as 20% on Friday January 23 after a news bulletin on Spanish radio indicated that the company was about to receive final permitting to restart the Rio Tinto copper mine.

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Thursday May 24.

The change in the predominant iron ore pricing mechanism — moving away from the annual benchmark system to a quarterly, index-linked methodology — was always bound to cause a stir

Chinese steel mills have agreed with Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton to set lump-over-fines premiums at $0.101-0.106 per dry tonne unit for the third quarter, little changed from the previous quarter.

Global steel producer Tata Steel has launched its second test campaign at its iron-making project in the Netherlands, the company said on Thursday October 4.

Last month’s sale of a majority stake in Alcan Engineered Products to investment group Apollo means that, for the first time, three of the world’s largest rolled products producers are now detached from upstream production

To say that the shift away from annual benchmark pricing in iron ore has caused some confusion would be something of an understatement.