Annual iron ore benchmark talk for fiscal 2010 is coming, under which spot iron ore price hit record high.
Bur some investment banks raised their forecast increase on long-term iron ore contract price for next year owing to the robust demand from China and other regions in the world.
On December 20th 2009, spot price for iron ore with 62% Fe content soared to USD 107.4 per tonne including freight rate about 47% higher than the benchmark for fiscal 2009 touched upon by Rio Tinto and Japanese steel makers.
Though the benchmark will be certainly lower than the spot market price for iron ore, top three miners will have more confidence in the annual talk as spot price keeps on climbing up.
Mr Jim Lennon a Macquarie analysts said that Australian benchmark iron ore prices might rise by 30%, comparing with their previous estimate for a 10% gain in annual talk for fiscal 2010.
Besides, they also predicted that the spot iron ore price was possible to go up continuously during the following several months to USD 120 to USD 130 per tonne based on the strong recovery beyond China.
JP Morgan also foresaw that benchmark iron ore price would climb up by 20% for fiscal 2010 and by 30% and 10% for fiscal 2011 and 2012 respectively.