Chinese steelmakers may ask the three biggest iron ore producers to cut their prices by 82% due to falling steel prices, the South China Morning Post reported. Shan Shanghua, secretary of the China Iron and Steel Association, said that miners’ profits should be pegged to steelmakers’, but market watchers believe the size of the discount is unrealistic. Mainland steelmakers want the new annual pricing to start from January 1 instead of April, when yearly negotiated contract prices normally go into effect, and are advocating for prices to be revised more frequently than once a year. Mainland steelmakers have reported combined losses of US$846 million in October, their first loss in six years.
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