Large Contract For Hamersley

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31584, 23 January 1968, Page 15

Large Contract For Hamersley

(N.Z. Preu Association-Copyright) SYDNEY, January 22. Hamersley Iron Proprietary, Ltd, has contracted to sell another 10m tons of ore—worth $45m —to Japan. The company now has contracts with Japan worth almost slloom.

The new contract is for low-grade ore—ore with an iron content around 55 per cent compared with more than 63 per cent for high-grade ore. It is the second contract concluded by Hamersley since the relaxation of the Federal Government’s guidelines on iron-ore prices last August.

Hamersley Iron, operating company for the publicly listed Hamersley Holdings, Ltd, is the biggest Australian supplier of iron ore to Japan. The ore in the new coiwract has been sold to Kobe Steel, Ltd, and will be suitable for blending with other ores to serve as feed for Kobe’s pellet plants. Shipments are planned to begin in the second half of 1970 and will be at an average annual rate of 800,000 tons. This is the largest single purchase of raw material made by any of the Japanese mills. Contract Appreciated The chairman of Hamersley (Sir Maurice Mawby) said this was the company’s second contract for supply of lowgrade ore to Japan. An earlier contract for supply of 5m tons over 10 years began last April.

“Kobe will blend the ore with supplies obtained from other countries to make feed for its pellet plant,” Sir Maurice Mawby said. “The contract is one we appreciate because it involves ore which otherwise would be dumped until we could convert it into pellets.” Pellet Plant He said the price of the ore in the new contract was about the same as that contained in the earlier deal covering low-grade ore. Sir Maurice Mawby said the company’s 2m tons annual capacity pellet plant at

Dampier, on the north-west coast of Western Australia, was at the teething stage and export of pellets would begin in a few months. Hamersley now has contracts to supply 137.4 m tons of iron ore and pellets to Japan over periods ranging up to 1983. Other Contracts The company also has contracts to supply 875,000 tons to Steel Company of Wales, 495,000 tons to Siderurgie Maritime S.A. of Belgium, and about 500,000 tons to test buyers in Belgium, France, West Germany and Italy. Under the Japanese contracts—including the one announced last night—Hamersley will be shipping about 12,800,000 tons of ore to Japan each year by 1972. Prospectus estimates of profit were based on annual shipments of 10m tons by 1972.