In the Turkish domestic pig iron market, local producer Kardemir had reduced its domestic pig iron prices by $30/mt before the Ramadan holiday. With this price move, Kardemir's price of H1 pig iron declined to $595/mt plus VAT, its H2 price decreased to $585/mt plus VAT, while its price of C1 pig iron moved down to $560/mt plus VAT, and its price for C2 pig iron regressed to $550/mt plus VAT. Kardemir's pig iron price update after a long silence also resulted in the reshaping of pig iron prices in the Turkish domestic market.
However, last week pig iron buyers in Turkey and the Middle East retreated from the market due to the Ramadan holiday and so domestic prices in Turkey followed a flat trend.
Looking at ex-CIS pig iron offers to Turkey prior to the Ramadan holiday, ex-Ukrainian pig iron offers were standing at $510-515/mt FOB, while Russian pig iron export offers were at $525-530/mt FOB, both for September shipments. However, for real buyers slightly lower offers were also available in the market, due to the sluggishness of the market.
Similar to Turkish and Middle Eastern buyers returning from the Ramadan holiday, European buyers are also expected to return from their summer holiday.
As for coking coal prices, a key cost ingredient for pig iron production, Australian coking coal prices have lately reached $300/mt and above levels, due to heavy rains in Australia and to the supply shortages resulting from this situation. And this has caused Chinese buyers to turn to Mongolia for their coking coal purchases. Higher coking coal prices are predicted to exert pressure on Far Eastern producers' production costs.
On the whole, pig iron suppliers are expected to define their new pig iron sales prices in line with demand coming from international pig iron buyers returning from a long holiday period.