Baosteel seals BHP deal on big iron ore price hike

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's largest steel maker Baosteel (600019.SS) confirmed on Friday that it had reached an agreement with BHP Billiton (BHP.AX)(BLT.L) over iron ore price increases of 79.88 percent to 96.55 percent.

"On July 4, Baosteel reached deals with one of world's leading iron ore miners BHP on 2008 benchmark prices on Newman fine ore, Yandi fine ore and Newman lump ore," the company said on its Web site (www.baosteel.com).

The deal was in line with a recent deal between Chinese steel mills and rival Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) (RIO.L).

Baosteel said last month it had agreed to pay up to 96.5 percent more for its iron ore under a term contract with Australian miner Rio.

(Reporting by Niu Shuping, Nao Nakanishi; Editing by Keiron Henderson)