In the global basic pig iron (BPI) market, prices have posted minimal changes over the past week, and trading has also been on the low side. Suppliers are trying to hold offers unchanged in rather weak market, though pressure from falling billet prices and from the resumption of the decline in scrap prices is increasing.
In the benchmark ex-Brazil BPI market, the tradable price level has been at $435-440/mt FOB, just down slightly from $438-440/mt FOB seen in the previous deals to the US. “As for me, the Brazilian market is stable, and there is not much news there,” a local trader said. Though there have been active negotiations for 30,000 mt of BPI to Mexico and market sources said that the level under negotiation was $435/mt FOB with Brazilian sellers, there has been no confirmation of a deal having been finalized by the time of publication. Local scrap prices in the US have settled at stable levels for August, with no increase for higher grades as it had been anticipated earlier.
The Russian BPI export market has also been almost silent. The latest deal for 15,000 mt of ex-Russia BPI to Italy has been reported at $425-430/mt CFR, versus the previous contract at $430/mt CFR from the same seller. The recent deal price translates to around $395/mt FOB Black Sea. At the beginning of this month, another non-sanctioned mill heard sold a batch, also to Italy, at $457/mt CFR, but for now this level is assessed as not being workable and “there could be some specific conditions. What is obvious is that Italy bought a lot before going on holiday to keep arrivals at high levels in August-early September,” a trader said. In the European secondary market, the tradable level has been estimated at $440/mt, according to calculations on CFR basis.
As for Russian suppliers, at least two of them have been keeping their official offers at $415-420/mt FOB and assessing the tradable level as not being below $410/mt FOB Black Sea. But this has not been matching buyers’ low price ideas, considering the downtrend in scrap and the $20/mt fall in Chinese billet prices this week.
In the Turkish market, there has been a rumor about a sale of a medium-sized lot of BPI from Russia at $390/mt CFR. Though this has been assessed as a “logical” price by some traders and importers after the workable level for billet in Turkey fell to as low as $470/mt CFR, the deal has been denied by the supposed seller, and a few other sources said that there was no such hurry for a seller to push material overseas at such a low price, equivalent to $370/mt FOB. In fact, the workable level for foundries in Turkey still stands at $410-420/mt CFR.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia BPI has remained at $390-400/mt FOB Black Sea.