Iron ore price up ahead of end of NEG's

Even though price negotiations between China and international iron ore producers have still to finish, prices are already increasing in China.

At Tianjin port, the country's third largest for iron ore imports, the Cost Insurance and Freight price, or CIF price for iron ore is over 140 US dollars a ton, compared to 80 US dollars the same time last year. That's an 80 percent increase. But in the first two month of this year, the import volume fell by almost 30 percent compared with a year ago. Nationally, the average import price of iron ore in the January to February period was 93 US dollars, up 30 percent on last year's long-term negotiated price. China imports 70 percent of the iron ore it uses.