Higher iron prices lift Ferrexpo
Shares in Ferrexpo rose sharply Thursday after the Ukraine-based miner said it had secured 90% year-on-year average price rises for more than half of its expected 2008 iron ore pellet sales.
Analysts had been predicting an 87% rise. The new prices apply from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009.
“These settlements are in line with the current iron ore market fundamentals, and provide us with greater confidence in committing to our planned investments in capacity growth and pellet quality improvements,” chief executive Mike Oppenheimer said.
Settlements for the remainder of of its sales book should be finalised soon at levels consistent with the recently announced international iron ore pellet benchmark increase, the company said. The company typically pre-sells 90% of its production with the rest being sold in the spot market.
“We continue to develop our relationships with our key customers who benefit from both reliable logistics and long term supply certainty by dealing with Ferrexpo,” Oppenheimer stated.
“In order to meet the strong demand from our customers we are committed to the aggressive development of our extensive iron reserves which are around the fourth largest in the world and the biggest in Europe,” he added.
