Quarterly iron ore supply contracts that are set to drive up the price of mass-market products such as cars, are not necessarily permanent, a leading steel industry executive has claimed.
Wolfgang Eder, chief executive of Voestalpine, the Austrian steelmaker, told the Financial Times that miners would start to lose the upper hand in contract negotiations in 18 months. “I think the situation will not stay as it is regarding the strength of the mines. It’s never that one party is only strong and the other is only weak.
“For the time being, there’s no doubt that we have to accept quarterly pricing. [But] in the medium and long run I have some doubts,” the well-respected industry figure and president of Eurofer, the European steelmaking association, said.