truck and barter

Boring news item:

Mining giant BHP Billiton has agreed to iron ore price hikes with Chinese steelmaker Baosteel.

Under the terms of the agreement, Baosteel will pay 144.46 cents per dry metric tonne for fine ore.

Lump ore, meanwhile, will trade for 201.69 cents.

Interesting subtext:

The first Olympic medal ceremony took place Thursday near Tiananmen Square, as the 6,000 gold, silver, and bronze medals were formally presented to organizers of the Beijing games.

Assembled in a mint in Shanghai and a product of Melbourne-based BHP Billiton Ltd., the metals themselves are a story in globalization. The gold and silver medals are comprised of silver from Australia (the gold medals are plated with gold from Chile) while the bronze medals are smelted from Chilean copper. A ring of Chinese jade from the Qinghai province adorns each.

The combined lode cost BHP, the world's largest mining company, over $1 million in raw materials.

That’s what a million dollars worth of Olympic sponsorship buys you: Iron ore at 144.46 cents per dry metric tonne. And given that this is a price rise in basic mineral inputs, it’ll presumably go towards costing the rest of us when recycled into finished goods.

Comments

[Tim Worstall]

Jebus. Wish I could buy iron ore at 144.46 cents per tonne.

In fact, I'm sure Baosteel would like to be able to as well, instead of the $144.46 per tonne they've just agreed to pay BHP.

[jamie]

A dollar fifty per tonne does look on the low side, I guess: but Jesus, that was off the Stock Exchange's own ticker.

[ejh]

Dodgy tickers at the Stock Exchange? Isn't that why they all retire before they're thirty?