Australian miner Atlas Iron has announced that it has completed a number of new sales contracts for its direct shipping iron ore from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The contracts signed pertain to existing production rolled-over and for ore from Atlas' 2014 expanded production base. These contracts are for durations of one to three years and have been signed with a mixture of new and existing counterparties.
According to Atlas Iron, the counterparties include a number of Chinese steel mills, Chinese trading houses and other international trading houses. The contracts range from 400,000 mt per year (one ship per quarter) to 1,200,000 mt per year (one ship per month), with an option for Atlas to provide additional tonnage as production allows.
Following execution of these agreements, approximately 60 percent of Atlas production is contracted for the 2014 calendar year, with further contracts for up to an additional 20 percent of production nearing completion and the remaining production to be retained for sale into the spot market.
