BHP wins US$9b China deal to supply iron ore
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-01 16:12

Anglo-Australia resource giant BHP Billiton has won a US$9 billion deal to supply 12 million tons of iron ore annually over 25 years to four Chinese steelmakers, the company said on March 1.

Charles Goodyear (C), CEO of BHP Billiton, shakes hands with Liu Benren, General Manager of China's Wuhan Iron and Steel Group Corporation, as Su Jiangang (R), Deputy General Manager of Ma'anshan Steel, looks on during a signing ceremony in Beijing May 1, 2004. [Reuters]

It is the biggest contract BHP has ever won in China.

BHP will also set up a joint venture with the four companies under which the four will take a combined 40 percent stake in a sub-lease for BHP's Jimblebar mine operations near Newman in western Australia.

BHP Billiton Chief Executive Chip Goodyear said the joint venture with Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp, Maanshan Iron & Steel Co Ltd, Jiangsu Shagang Group Co Ltd and Tangshan Iron and Steel is a unique venture that would ensure stable and long-term iron ore supplies to a group of Chinese steel makers.

The company said it would immediately begin shipping an additional four to six million tonnes of iron ore a year to the Chinese mills, approximately doubling its total sales to these customers in 2004.

China has become a huge customer for BHP Billiton in recent years, with the country's 8 percent-plus economic growth -- and higher rates in sectors such as automotive -- driving demand for Australian iron ore, copper, coal and nickel.

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