麻豆约拍

European steelmakers have accused mining companies of forcing up prices of their key raw material, iron ore.

The market is dominated by three big mining companies, Rio Tinto, Vale and BHP Billiton. Prices used to be set annually. But recently the miners have switched to setting prices four times a year, and price levels have risen steeply.

Lesley Curwen talks to Gordon Moffat who is the director general of EUROFER, the European steel industry association. He argues that the mining companies have pushed up prices unfairly, and that this could drive up steel costs for both manufacturers and consumers, threatening the global recovery.

Carl Peter Forster, who is Group Chief executive of Tata Motors, explains how much the price of steel matters to his company.

We asked Rio Tinto, Vale and BHP Billiton to respond to the steelmakers complaints. Vale's chief executive in a statement denied it was fixing prices, saying that prices are established in the market. A spokesman from BHP Billiton declined to comment. Rio Tinto said in a statement that the new system of setting prices was much more transparent than the old.

And Michael Tamvakis who is Professor of Commodity Economics at the Cass Business School, argues the steelmakers have been crying wolf.