Australia's Atlas Iron said that iron ore producers will continue to push for shorter term pricing to keep pace with changing market fundamentals.

Mr David Flanagan MD of Atlas told the Reuters Global Mining and Steel Summit that "Over time the industry is going to migrate more and more to shorter term, one month pricing.”

The change, spearheaded by BHP Billiton and slowly being adopted by other iron ore producers, follows last year's move to ditch the 40 year old annual price benchmarking system in favor of prices set every three months based on average spot prices over the preceding quarter.

Steel mills, particularly in China fought against the shift, but eventually had no choice but to accept the new regime given the dominance in supply wielded by a small number of large producers.

Like most iron ore miners worldwide, Atlas, which was formed in 2004 to explore for iron ore and other minerals in Australia's Pilbara iron belt, was forced to sell ore at a price negotiated by sector majors Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton once a year until 2010.

(Sourced from Reuters)