Brazilian mining and metals giant Vale said on Friday its price talks with China will not affect iron ore exports to that nation, after the company unexpectedly decided to renegotiate its contracts with Asian clients.
“If iron ore shipments to China should stop, China’s steel industry would come to a standstill,” Vale president Roger Agnelli told reporters seeking his comments on rumors that China had decided to cancel iron ore imports from Brazil.
Agnelli said there was no problem with his company’s trade with China and that iron ore exports to the Asian giant were continuing as normal.
The world’s top iron ore producer, Vale mostly exports the mineral to China and sets its price annually, through negotiations at the start of the year.
However, Vale on Sept. 9 broke tradition by announcing it was “renegotiating the price of iron ore with our Asian clients to bring it in line with our European clients, due to the drop in shipping costs.”
Agnelli said Vale’s iron ore prices for Asian clients were 11.5 percent lower than Europe’s.
“It’s an issue that’s going to be negotiated, but in reality the Chinese will not see a rise [in prices]. The lower shipping costs between Brazil and China will offset the higher price of iron,” Agnelli said.
“The Chinese are complaining, but the final price will be the same,” he said, adding that Vale’s production facilities were operating at full capacity and he saw no signs demand was dropping.
Meanwhile, China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan’s largest maker of the metal, will continue to operate its mills at 100 percent of capacity to meet strong local demand, vice president Kao Tong-seng (高東生) said.
The steelmaker won’t cut output and will support mills that rejected Vale’s demand for the raw material iron ore, Kao said in Shanghai yesterday.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
RSS