Following relatively quiet trading over the past two weeks and falling bids from major buyers, trading for ex-Russia basic pig iron (BPI) has revived recently. Sellers have managed to achieve higher prices in deals compared to what buyers wanted over the previous two weeks, but prices have been at a lower level compared to that asked by major mills since early March.
European customers, who were asking for $400-410/mt CFR for Russian pig iron, have failed to achieved these low levels, and one large lot of 40,000-50,000 mt has been sold at $415-420/mt CFR to Italy. This price translates to $385-390/mt FOB Black Sea. Moreover, another large lot of 40,000 mt has been traded to a distributor at a level around $5/mt higher. Also, there has been a rumor that another Russian mill sold around 20,000 mt of pig iron to Europe and, though there has been no confirmation by the time of publication, market sources said that the price should be similar to $415-520/mt CFR. As a result, to Europe alone, Russian BPI producers have sold from 90,000 mt to 120,000 mt since late last week.
Russian producers were insisting at $405-410/mt FOB over the past few weeks, but, with softening global demand, this level has remained impossible for most buyers.
Also, up to 20,000 mt of Russian BPI have been traded to Turkey at $420/mt CFR, according to market sources, translating to $400/mt FOB. But such a high price level has been explained by possible low-manganese content and the end-users are expected to be foundries, not steel mills. Most steel mills in Turkey have been seeing the tradable levels at $405-410/mt CFR, similar on FOB basis to what Italian buyers achieved. Another deal for 5,000-10,000 mt of Russian pig iron was done last week at $405/mt CFR.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia BPI has settled at $385-400/mt FOB Black Sea, up by $15-20/mt from last week’s assessment of $370-380/mt FOB.