Offers for US import pig iron prices firmed up the week ended November 25, but after a second faltering in the Chinese futures market today (Wednesday) within a two week period, pig iron buyers note that they expect offer prices to begin moving down from the most recent offers this week. Prices in the Chinese futures and spot markets moved down today amid a weakening sentiment in the coking coal market. In turn, the downward shift also decreased iron ore prices down sharply to approximately $72/mt CFR China from the height of $81/mt CFR China two days ago.
SteelOrbis reported Ex-Brazil offers on November 23 for basic steelmaking pig iron at $310-320/mt FOB Brazilian port, CIS at $295-315/mt FOB Black Sea, and $320-330/mt CFR New Orleans. These numbers reflected an increase of $50/mt from $260-275 FOB Brazil and $25/mt CIS Black Sea from prices reported in early November. In early November, deals as low as $230-240/mt FOB were also reported offered from Brazil. Over the last four weeks, steel products increased primarily on the basis of tight coking coal supplies.
Active offers this week for basic pig iron from the CIS moved up $5/mt to $300-315/mt FOB Black Sea and remained constant at $310-320 FOB Brazilian port. Given freight considerations, these prices translate to $320-335/mt CFR East coast port from the CIS and $320-330/mt CFR New Orleans from Brazil.
On the global side, the steel market has been showing mixed dynamics over the past week. While offer prices of steel goods to domestic and export markets throughout increased, transactions at those new levels have been limited as some market participants remained wary of upswing. In the US, the increase in list prices and optimistic outlook for steel has begun to move finished deals up, but sources close to SteelOrbis note that the pig iron import volume will remain limited until at least early 2017.