In the Black Sea BPI market, negotiations have been more active this week, supported by the uptrend in the scrap market in Turkey, together with overall limited BPI offer volumes.
The tradable levels have reached $350-365/mt FOB, versus the previous levels of $330-355/mt FOB seen in late October. The higher levels of $380-385/mt FOB heard in some destinations have not been included in the SteelOrbis reference price as they were for higher quality material and mainly represent rare offers, rather than already workable levels.
There have been no fresh offers for basic pig iron from Donbass, the Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, which were quoted the lowest previously. “Donbass mills don’t have pig iron [for exports]. All allocation is going for billet production, also they have a lack of pellets,” a trader commented. Other market sources confirmed the absence of basic pig iron volumes on offer, and said that only semi-nodular pig iron has been offered at $420/mt FOB.
There has been talk about a sale of ex-Russia BPI to Italy this week. There has been no confirmation of this, but a few market sources agreed that bids have increased. The highest bids from steelmaker have been heard at $385/mt CFR, translating to $355/mt FOB or so. This is a significant improvement from bids at $370-375/mt CFR two weeks back. For foundries, the price could be $5-10/mt higher, at $390-395/mt CFR. “I would say that the right market price for Russian pig iron is $360/mt FOB,” a European source said. “The market is a bit more active after the latest scrap hikes [in Turkey], but let’s see the further development. Prices [for pig iron from Black Sea] are still not that good,” one seller said.
In addition, there has been active talk about sales of at least one lot of 10,000 mt of Russian pig iron at $380-385/mt FOB to Turkey, with the CFR price reported at slightly above $400/mt CFR. “This is true, but this is very good quality pig iron, which is for foundries,” a Turkish source said.
“We are sold out until February,” one of the Russian suppliers said.
