Bloomberg reported that Rio Tinto Group, the world second-biggest exporter of iron ore hasn’t seen any demand slowdown after China cut power supplies to some steelmakers to meet energy efficiency targets.

Mr Warwick Smith MD of sales and marketing for Rio’s iron ore business said “We haven’t seen any drop in our forward shipping schedule for the rest of this year. We’re running at full capacity.”

He said that Imports by China will remain at similar levels to last year, if not better.

Mr Smith said “Our position for this fiscal year has been to give the quarterly pricing mechanism the chance to operate. We’ll continue to talk with all our customers in Japan, Korea and China about what they think, what they see should evolve.”

He said that Rio Tinto doesn’t have any plans to price iron ore on a monthly basis.

Mr Shan Shanghua general secretary of the China Iron and Steel Association said mining companies and steelmakers should seek a better pricing system. He said that pricing the ore based on indexes doesn’t accurately reflect the Chinese market.

Mr Shan reiterated a call to limit the number of Chinese importers for iron ore at the conference.

(Sourced from Bloomberg)