In the past week, local Indian pig iron prices have remained stable for the third consecutive week at INR 16,700/mt ($249/mt) ex-works, amid improved sentiments on exports and as the market has been waiting for new price announcements from large producers, traders said on Wednesday, July 27.
"Prices have remained stable in a low volume market. Fresh bookings by market intermediaries have remained modest as they await a new price list for August deliveries to be announced by large producers over course of the next one week," a Kolkata-based trader said.
"Also, there have been reports that export tenders of aggregate volumes of 50,000-60,000 were successfully concluded by government trading firm MMTC Limited, boosting sentiments during the week," the trader added.
A section of market sources said that, if the current stability is sustained over the next few days, large producers would consider a roll-back of the INR 500/mt ($7/mt) cuts in prices announced early this month.
The sources said that, having implemented three price cuts over last month and a half, producers are expected to seize the current price stability to rollback lower prices and improve margins even though market volumes have remained low.
$1 = INR 67.19