An ex-Ukraine pig iron tender has lately closed at the range of $390-395/mt FOB. Meanwhile, the soft trends in scrap and finished steel prices have also been reflected in pig iron quotations as expected, with import pig iron prices in the Turkish domestic market softening slightly since last week.
Current Ukrainian pig iron offers are given to Turkey at $410-415/mt CFR, while transactions are anticipated to be concluded at $5/mt less than these levels. However, poor demand for finished steel and the ongoing price deterioration in scrap have contributed to a reduction in demand for pig iron. Considering the scrap price decline to $380/mt CFR, Turkish pig iron buyers believe that import pig iron offers should also drop to the level of $395-400/mt CFR.
In the graph above, it can been seen that Ukrainian pig iron prices in the first four months of 2012 were approximately $50-60/mt higher than prices in the same period of the current year.