China has been providing significant support for sellers of both basic pig iron (BPI) and semis globally, basically being the only sizeable consuming market in the current situation when demand has been stalled in almost all key outlets. While the BPI trade in the EU and the US has been on hold, huge lots have been sold to China from the CIS and Brazil over the past two weeks.
According to SteelOrbis’ estimates, China has booked at least 365,000 mt of import pig iron over the past two weeks. The majority of deals have been done at about $330/mt CFR. Moreover, SteelOrbis has been informed of ongoing negotiations at a similar level, which may also result in deals shortly.
In particular, ex-Brazil suppliers of BPI with 0.15 percent phosphorus content have sold four cargoes 60,000 mt at $300/mt FOB for May-June shipments. As SteelOrbis reported previously, last week Russia’s NLMK had sold to China close to 100,000 of BPI, again at around $300/mt FOB Black Sea. In addition, along with the mills, some traders have also chosen to redirect some volumes to China. “Our business in the EU has temporarily stopped, so we had to divert about 25,000 mt of pig iron to China, though it is not a traditional market for us”, a traders stated. In addition, there are active discussions among market insiders that Russia-based Tulachermet also managed to sell material to China. According to sources, the sale has been closed at $325-330/mt CFR; however, the information has not been confirmed by the time of publication.