After a few weeks of relatively slow trading, export bookings for ex-Brazil basic pig iron (BPI) have improved and prices have settled a few dollars below compared to the previous deals. Sellers have been hesitant to cut prices much but wanted to accelerate October shipment sales.
According to market sources, each of two deals for around 50,000-55,000 mt Brazilian pig iron with 0.15 percent of phosphorus content have been done at $435-437/mt FOB, down from the previous bookings at $437-440/mt FOB. All deals are for the US market and October shipment. “Obviously this round of sales has settled, it is interesting to see if prices will be stable for September,” a trading source said.
This deal's prices translate to $465-467/mt CFR as the highest, but some sources reported even slightly lower levels.
In addition, another deal for Brazilian BPI with lower phosphorus content of near 0.10-0.12 percent has been done at $475/mt CFR to the US. This level is similar to the contract done for this grade a month ago, but at the moment has been considered on the higher side. Taking into account the relatively limited supply of low phosphorus pig iron, customers agreed for the same price.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import BPI in the US has been settled at $460-475/mt CFR, stable on average, but the range is wider by $5/mt.