Russian metals and mining group Mechel will export up to 300,000 tons of coal per year to Japan’s Itochu Corporation under a long-term contract, the company said in a statement on November 2.
“We have been shipping coal to Itochu Corporation only under spot contracts for the past two years, and the signing of a long-term contract became a logical extension of our partnership relations,” the company quoted Pavel Stark, CEO of Mechel-Mining, as saying. “Today the Japanese market accounts for about 20% of Mechel’s exports of coal products, and we plan to increase the share in the nearest future.”
The companies will set the price of coal through mutual agreements without any formulas. Japan’s large cement and power companies will become the end consumers of Mechel’s coal, the company said. (Prime/Ukrainian metal)