The traditional seasonal slowdown in purchasing activity for raw materials and steel products has impacted the pig iron markets negatively, but the market will likely see a recovery after the New Year holiday. The downtrend of iron ore prices in China and expectations for further declines may shape the pig iron price trend in the coming period, though it is observed that pig iron prices have trended independently from iron ore and scrap prices during the current year. Iron ore prices will unlikely indicate upward movements until after the Chinese New Year holiday, which starts in late January. Meanwhile, pig iron prices are also not expected to increase in the short term due to the relatively weak demand coming towards the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian pig iron export offers are ranging at $390-395/mt FOB. After the holidays, in addition to the demand levels in Turkey, the demand levels from Italy and the US are also foreseen to influence offers for Turkey.
On the other hand, Turkey's pig iron imports continued their year-on-year downtrend in October this year, totaling 51,134 mt, down 34.73 percent compared to the same month last year.