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Brazilian government plan implementation costs of iron ore export tax to exporters of iron ore. Application of the tax costs aimed at increasing domestic investment, especially domestic steel production increase.

Brazil is the country’s second largest iron ore exporting; some iron ore production is exported to China for use as raw materials to produce steel in China.

Posco, South Korea’s biggest steelmaker, said an agreement on coking coal prices for this year may be delayed because major suppliers of the steelmaking ingredient demand a change in the pricing system.

The cash price of iron ore delivered to China, the world’s biggest buyer, rose to the highest in more than a year amid what Goldman Sachs JBWere Pty said was “panic buying” by steel mills.

The cost of 62 percent iron-content ore delivered to Tianjin port increased 2.9 percent to $124.80 a metric ton yesterday, according to The Steel Index.

Iron ore prices have surged to near a 1½-year high after India, the world’s third largest exporter, slapped an export tax on the commodity used to produce steel.

The imposition of the 5 per cent export duty over Christmas, combined with strong global demand and low domestic production in China, have pushed iron ore prices up almost 30 per cent in the past month, traders and brokers said.

Iron ore prices will likely rise in 2010, underpinned by growing demand from China, the chief executive of Brazilian mining giant Vale said on Monday,...

Brazilian mining giant Vale will reduce the delivery price of iron ore sold to China next year, the China Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The report, citing an unnamed official with a Chinese steel company, said Vale has already signed long-term freight price agreements with a number of local mills, offering discounts of 20-30%.

Vale’s chief executive, Roger Agnelli, told reporters on Monday that the company had not yet begun discussing next year’s contract iron ore prices with Chinese steel mills.

India’s iron ore exports in October more than doubled to 9.325 million tonnes from 4.26 million tonnes a year ago, a release from the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries showed on Thursday.

Iron ore exports in the first seven months of the current financial year to October were at 53.225 million tonnes, up from 44.06 million tonnes in the same period a year ago, it showed.

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company, said first-quarter iron ore production rose to a record, driven by a rebound in global steel demand.