Rio, Vale Ask for 50% Iron Ore Price Increase, China Daily Says

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Rio Tinto Group and Vale SA asked steelmakers to accept a 50 percent increase in the prices of contract iron ore, China Daily reported, citing an unidentified executive at a Chinese steelmaker.

Baosteel Group Corp., which is leading Chinese talks with iron ore suppliers, plans to see how Japanese and South Korean steelmakers react to the price proposal before deciding, the paper said, citing the executive.

"We never comment on nor speculate about contract prices," said Gervase Greene, a Perth-based spokesman for Rio. London-based Rio is the world's second-largest steelmaker.

Vale, Rio and BHP Billiton Ltd., the three biggest iron ore producers, may win higher benchmark prices in 2010 as global steel production recovers. Iron ore contract prices may rise 70 percent as producers seek to peg them closer to the higher spot rates, Nomura Holdings Inc. said March 1.