Indian domestic pig iron prices drop down due to sluggish demand

Local Indian pig iron prices have slipped by INR 1,000/mt ($18/mt) in the past week to INR 22,500/mt ($416/mt) ex-works, with low demand forcing traders to offer heavy discounts to keep inventories moving, traders said on Monday, May 6.
 
"The pig iron markets have been completely in the bearish grip of persistent slack demand. The main producers are keeping their base pig iron price unchanged, but both producers and traders are implementing aggressive discounts to keep volumes moving," a Kolkata-based trader said.
 
"But high discounts have failed to trigger volume bookings because orders with foundries are very low and most foundries have cut down their capacity utilization," the trader added.
 
Market sources have said that the domestic pig iron market outlook is very dismal with the weakness of the market deepening since September-October 2012, and most producers are making operational losses from domestic sales of pig iron and only small volume exports are enabling them to partially recover the high cost of local iron ore.
 
However, the market sources added that there are no reports in the market of any pending pig iron export tenders by large producers.