Without doubt, 2009 was a bad year for the long- standing benchmark system for setting the annual prices of iron ore and coking coal, the main ingredients in steel.
After an acrimonious months-long battle between China, the world's largest iron ore importer, and the miners Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, Beijing rejected a benchmark deal for a 33 per cent cut in prices for the 2009-2010 contract year that the miners had already agreed with customers in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. China had wanted a bigger cut.
The rebuff was unprecedented because under the traditional system the first deal between a miner and a major steelmaker set the benchmark followed by the rest of the sector.
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