Prices in the local Indian local pig iron market has increased further during the past week, surging by INR 2,000/mt ($30/mt ) to INR 19,500/mt ($291/mt) ex-works, supported by the sustained rise in transaction volumes and massive drawdown in stocks of large producers, traders said on Wednesday, September 21.
“All round buying, particularly that of steel grade pig iron, over the past several weeks has triggered an all round bullish sentiment. In fact, with the high volume of fresh bookings, producers’ inventories are currently at an all time low,” a Kolkata based trader said.
“Fears of supply crunch added fuel to the upward movement in prices,” he added.
According to market sources, with the support of the bullish environment in the market, MMTC Limited has cancelled an export tender for about 30,000 mt, in view of rising demand in domestic market and opportunities of higher margins than export shipments.
A section of the market has stated that most producers has concluded pig iron deals to export markets during the past few months at around $240/mt and this was remunerative when domestic sales averaged at around $250-260/mt.
But since local prices are expected to hit the $300/mt mark and due to the supply side pressures, local pig iron producers are expected to increase their focus of domestic sales, the market sources added.
$1 = INR 66.96