Iron-ore price rise to cost Germany 1 bln euro
BERLIN, March 8 (Reuters) - This year's 71.5 percent rise in iron-ore prices would cost Germany's steel industry one billion euros and force a rise in steel prices, the head of German steel industry association WVS said on Tuesday.
Brazilian mine CVRD <600019.SS> in recent weeks succeeded in extracting a 71.5 percent price rise for iron-ore shipments in 2005 in Japan, Taiwan, Australia, and parts of Europe, Dieter Ameling said.
"As steel companies in Germany are also set to be forced to make settlements at a similar level, they face extra costs of over 1 billion euros ($1.33 billion)," he told a conference on commodities organised by German industry association BDI.
"This would have an impact on the entire steel market. Steel companies would have to pass the extra burden onto the market."
The small number of companies in the global ire ore trade was partly to blame for the high ore price rise, he said. It came at a time when Germany's steel industry also faced rising scrap metal prices.
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