Chinese steel industry officials have agreed among themselves to accept a 33% iron ore price cut compared with last year's benchmark, the Steel Business Briefing said in a report Friday, citing unnamed sources.

China has publicly insisted to date that it would only accept a reduction of at least 40% on term prices retroactive to April 1.

Steel Business Briefing, a London-based trade publication, said it understood from "a number of sources" that the China Iron and Steel Association and Baosteel Group Corp. have agreed internally to accept terms for 2009-10 ore similar to those struck between Rio Tinto PLC (RTP) and Asian mills last week.

Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese mills accepted a 33% cut from Rio Tinto, but China is still negotiating with mining majors Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) and Vale SA (VALE).

Association and Baosteel officials couldn't be reached for comment on the report. Recent comments haven't signaled any change of stance.

-By Chuin-Wei Yap and Juan Chen, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588 5848; chuin-wei.yap@dowjones.com, juan.chen@dowjones.com