its from smh aritcle dated at 20/ 02. vale settled 65 % increase in its price, but Rio and BHP wants more.
Iron ore sellers add the freight premium to the per ton charge to charge the buyer a premium for shipment costs. Shipping giants like NAT have charged a lot more over the past few years. Brazilian iron producers like Vale have been able to add a lot onto their prices when selling to China to accomodate for this. Rio Tinto and BHP are bigger and should have more pricing power but have had to sell for lower prices, because China is trying to take all of the economic benefit it can and arguing that it is so close that shipping for them should be cheap. That is true, but they really are not getting anything extra like Vale. They are trying to get some kind of differential between the huge amount given to Brazilian producers and the cheap price they sell to China. I included some older articles than the one you mentioned to give you the background on the build up.
