Mixed news on ironsands

Press, 11 February 1983, Page 10

Mixed news on ironsands

From

BRUCE ROSCOE

in Tokyo

While some Japanese steel executives visit New Zealand to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Taharoa ironsand exports to Japan, others in Tokyo will be deciding whether to end the contract for Waipipi ironsand imports. According to a private Japanese steel industry journal, nine Japanese executives of five blast-furnace steelmakers and two trading houses will attend a ceremony held by New Zealand Steel Mining on February 23 to mark the anniversary.

The Japanese delegation, led by Mr Koji Nemoto, senior managing director of Nippon Kokan K.K., would celebrate the supply of 13.3 million tonnes of Taharoa ironsands to Japan since the first shipment, for Kawasaki Steel, was carried by Kawasaki Steamship’s 52,000ton slurry ship Yasu Kawamaru in October. 1972.

But an earlier report in the same journal says that Nippon Steel, which imports Waipipi ironsands, considers an extension of the contract “unnecessary” because of low demand for the sands resulting from falling steel production. The contract expires at the end of March.

Failure to negotiate an extension would tip the bilateral trade balance further in Japan's favour by considerably reducing ironsand export returns, which last year were worth about $28.4 million.

The report said that the price of ironsand was higher than that of iron ore and needed to be adjusted to a “fair level.” No uncertainty was noted over a continuation of the long-term Taharoa contract between New Zealand Steel and six Japanese steelmakers for the supply of 2.1 million tonnes of the sands a year until 1987.