Rio Tinto Ltd. (RTP) Iron Ore Chief Executive Sam Walsh said Wednesday that the company has seen "very strong demand from all markets" in the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

"Certainly Chinese demand has been very strong but we have also had a pick up across each of the other markets - Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Europe and North America," Walsh told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a function.

"So we are pretty pleased at the way markets have picked up," Walsh said.

Rio Tinto on Wednesday reported record third quarter iron ore output of 47.5 million metric tons, up 12% on year and 5% on the second quarter, and increased its full year output guidance to between 210 million-215 million tons.

Walsh said that 2010 will see Rio Tinto benefit from the recent expansion of its Pilbara iron ore capacity to 220 million tons a year.

"Next year, we'll see the full impact of that," he said.

Asked whether benchmark prices will need to increase next year to reflect the strong demand, Walsh said: "the market is very strong and the outlook is positive".

He said the company is still not in discussions with China on iron ore pricing and he is unsure when talks will restart.

Walsh added that discussions between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) over a production joint venture in iron ore are "progressing positively".

-By Stephen Bell, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; 61-8-9244-4243; sgbell@bigpond.com