BEIJING Dec 30 （Reuters） - Brazilian mining giant Vale SA （VALE5.SA: Quote） is expected to raise quarterly iron ore contract prices by 8.8 percent to $149.20 per tonne in January, according to Reuters calculations.
A Chinese steel mill source confirmed to Reuters that Vale had decided first-quarter prices by calculating the average Platts' daily CFR price for North China IODBZ00-PLT from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30.
Vale switched to quarterly pricing in April 2009, abandoning a decades-old annual benchmark system in which prices are settled once a year following an increasingly fraught period of negotiations by buyers and sellers.
According to the Chinese source, contracts with Vale stipulated that prices for each quarter were set according to an average price "for those days within the period of three consecutive calendar months beginning on the first day of the fourth calendar month prior to the start of the relevant quarter." （Reporting by Ruby Lian, Tom Miles and David Stanway; Editing by Chris Lewis）
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