Published on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 10:19 | Source : Reuters
Updated at Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 14:36
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ArcelorMittal to boost mine production
ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, aims to boost iron ore production from its own mines by over 50% in the next five years, the company's head of mining said on Wednesday.
ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, aims to boost iron ore production from its own mines by over 50% in the next five years, the company's head of mining said on Wednesday. The increase will come from an "optimization" of the company's mines around the world to produce more efficiency and make ArcelorMittal more self-sufficient in key steel-making raw materials like iron ore and coking coal. "We would like to achieve iron ore production of the order of 100 million tonnes (per year) in 2015," Peter Kukielski told the Reuters Global Mining and Steel Summit. Currently, ArcelorMittal mines produce 60 million to 70 million tonnes. "Our goal is to expand our level of self-sufficiency (in iron ore) to the order of 70% or so," Kukielski said. Europe-based ArcelorMittal has steel-making operations around the world and reached its No. 1 status to some extent by avoiding buying on global ore and coal markets. "For some time now it has been the company's strategy to integrate backward into mining because of the volatility of raw material prices and supply," Kukielski said. Asked about the iron ore benchmark price currently being negotiated by major suppliers and steelmakers, he said there was "no doubt there will be a substantial increase." He gave no figure, but with spot iron ore prices trading at double last year's contract price, analysts are looking for rises from 65% to 80%. Kukielski said although ArcelorMittal would never preclude potential mining acquisitions, he nevertheless spent more of his time "trying to optimize the assets that we have. "There are certain of those mines that have such a large resource base that they are crying to be expanded. "We have assessed all of our mining assets and done life-of-mine planning."
