POSCO has agreed to buy bituminous coal at about $125 per tonne as of April 1, from BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, POSCO spokesperson Oh Dong-ho told Reuters.
In 2003 POSCO imported 19.9 million tonnes of coal, 11.3MT of which was sourced from Australia.
POSCO has been busy securing coking coal, announcing last month it had signed a 10 year sale contract to purchase about 4.85 million tonnes per annum of metallurgical coal next year from Canada’s Elkview mine, increasing to 6.25Mt pa from 2007 onwards.
It also sealed a deal with Vancouver-based company Western Canadian Coal to buy three million tonnes of PCI and coking coal over a six year period.
POSCO announced in December plans to buy 5% stakes in two Australian coal mines, at Carborough Downs in Queensland and Glennies Creek in New South Wales.
