The bearishness among Russian BPI exporters has been increasing as demand globally is weak and bids from a few major sales destinations have been falling.
In Italy’s import BPI market, the tradable price for ex-Russia BPI has slipped to $370/mt CFR, down by $10/mt over the past week from the lowest level last week. This price translates to $340-345/mt FOB Black Sea. But there has been a rumor about a sale of 30,000 mt of ex-Russia BPI at $360/mt CFR for the new EU quota period which starts on January 1, 2025. The deal has not been confirmed by the time of publication, with a few market sources saying that the mill was just collecting material at the port for now. Nevertheless, as one trader commented, “This price is reasonable for now, considering the weakness in Turkey.”
According to market sources, one of the major Russian exporters has managed to sell 100,000 mt of pig iron for 2025, which has started to arrive in Europe already. However, a trader in Europe noted, “Port authorities may have problems unloading material as it is illegal to touch Russian pig iron before 2025.”
Since trading to Europe is difficult for now, suppliers have been paying attention to another market - Turkey. According to market reports, as much as 150,000 mt was traded from Russia to steel mills in Turkey in late October. But while at that time the deal price level was at around $350/mt FOB, at the moment, with the fall in scrap prices, the workable level for import BPI in Turkey has been assessed at $360/mt CRF at the highest or at around $340/mt FOB Black Sea. Some offers for low-manganese Russian BPI have been heard at $350/mt FOB for Turkey.
The latest deal for ex-Russia BPI to India was done at $370/mt CFR, according to market sources, translating to $325-330/mt on FOB Black Sea basis. The previous deal was reported by SteelOrbis at $375/mt CFR.