While we get close to the first experience on new, quarterly adjusted iron ore contracts, Brazil's Vale said its market share in China may drop this year but not because of the higher prices as one could think. Ferrous metals director José Carlos Martins said the company is expanding shipments to other countries but did not mentioned where. Shipments to the world’s biggest buyer may be about 140 million metric tonnes this year, similar to 2009, and accounting for about 45% of Vale's output.

“A lot of other markets are growing very fast” Martins said. “There is a lot of competition between the volume we sell to China and the volume we sell to other markets”.