Hearing Chatter On BHP Billiton (BHP)

Benzinga is hearing Wall Street chatter that BHP Billiton BHP is moving to monthly contracts on iron ore, a far cry from its original yearly contracts. In the middle of last year, BHP, Rio Tinto RIO and Vale VALE all agreed with their customers to move from a yearly contract to quarterly contracts, to better reflect the pricing in the spot market for iron ore prices. Japanese and Chinese steel companies were initially reluctant to agree, as the companies felt that the major iron ore miners were trying to take advantage of the need of the metal. They ultimately relented, and agreed upon the new contracts. Now it looks like no one wants to deal with any volatility, and given rising commodity inflation, BHP is trying to capture as much upside as possible. At last check, shares of BHP were up 46 cents to $89.24, a gain of 0.5%.