Agreement on ironsand

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32486, 22 December 1970, Page 18

Agreement on ironsand

(N.Z.P.A .’Reuter—Copyright) TOKYO, December 21. Five leading Japanese steel mills reached a sll6m agreement to import 11.6 m tons of ironsand from New Zealand over a 10-year period.

Kawasaki Steel Corporation, which heads the group, said that a formal contract for the imports would be signed next month with the New Zealand Steel Corporation.

The broad agreement, concluded with Mr J. Ingram, of New Zealand Steel, provided for the importing of 800,000 tons in the initial year starting mid-1972, and 1.2 m annually thereafter. Orders would be placed with Kawasaki Steamship Company, Showa Kaiun, and Japan Line, for the construction of three 50,000 ton special carriers to take the ironsand to Japan.

The ironsands would be mined at Taharoa, concen-

trated at a nearby plant, and then piped in slurry form to a loading place using a large buoy about a mile and a quarter off the coast. Kawasaki said the contract price was 15.749 United States cents per 1 per cent of iron content, c and f, New Zealand. If the New Zealand firm could build a fourth carrier, ironsand imports might be increased 200,000 tons a year, Kawasaki said.