Action seems to be hotting up on the iron ore price negotiation front with steelmaker Baosteel Group replacing China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) as the chief negotiator for the Chinese side in its talks with the big three iron ore suppliers, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale.

The negotiations, which are likely to start by the end of December, also assume significance against the backdrop of Rio and BHP further consolidating their mining operations over the weekend.

This year's iron ore price negotiations reached an impasse in June after China's chief negotiator CISA insisted on a 45 percent discount over last year's prices, after a 33 percent cut in benchmark iron ore prices had been reached by the "Big Three" with other Asian steel mills.