The European steel industry will ask competition authorities in Brussels as soon as this week to investigate the iron ore market, escalating a price fight with miners Valeof Brazil, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

The move by Eurofer, the industry body, comes after the miners told European steelmakers that iron ore prices would rise by 80-100 per cent in the year starting April 1, and pushed for quarterly contracts, instead of annual deals.

Gordon Moffat, Eurofer director general, said the steel association could see “nothing” on the demand side to justify the price increase demanded by the miners.

“We believe that it could be evidence of anti-competitive behaviour and even co-ordinate price behaviour in the iron ore market, but it is up to the relevant authorities to determine this,” Mr Moffat told the Financial Times. “We think the authorities should see whether there is a cartel in the iron ore market.”

Vale, Rio Rinto and BHP Billiton control about 70 per cent of the world's seaborne ore market.

Eurofer's attack comes only days after a similar stance from the China Iron and Steel Association, suggesting that the steelmakers' anger at the price rise is rapidly spreading.

The Japanese steel industry has yet to comment officially on the price rise.

In a letter to the EU's competition watchdog, Eurofer will suggest that Brussels should expand its current investigation into an iron ore joint-venture between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton to cover pricing, or launch a new investigation into prices.

ArcelorMittal and Thyssen Krupp are Eurofer's largest members.

Mr Moffat said the European steelmakers opposed the miners' push to drop the 40-year-old “benchmark” system, in which mills and miners negotiate annual contracts for iron ore. The miners want to replace the system, which relies on lengthy and often acrimonious talks, by one in which the spot market dictates the price.

But the director general of Eurofer said the spot iron ore market was “illiquid, opaque and did not represent supply and demand fundamentals”. The miners disagree and maintain that the spot market represents the real price. Most analysts and consultants side with the miners' view.

Excluding freight costs, current spot prices are more than double the $60-a-tonne level at which the annual iron ore contracts were settled for 2009-10.