The Turkish pig iron market has lately observed a softening trend, in line with the softening in scrap prices. According to Kardemir's new price increase announcement for pig iron on October 12, its offers for H1 are at $485/mt, its H2 offers stand at $475/mt, C1 offers are at $460/mt and its C2 offers stand at $450/mt. All prices are ex-works and exclude VAT.
As regards the Russian pig iron market, one of the key markets for pig iron, pig iron export offers stand at $430/mt or slightly lower. Meanwhile, in the Ukrainian market, the emergence of offers at $400/mt FOB has led buyers in the international market to be concerned about a possible further price softening. Some Turkish meltshops have preferred to delay their new purchases due to the slowdown in finished steel exports.
The hot topics on the foundry side are the ongoing deliveries of previous orders and the liveliness in foundry pig iron sales to Europe as a result of the strength of the euro against the US dollar.
In the local Chinese market, price increases for iron ore have led pig iron suppliers to monitor the Chinese market closely. For damp base iron ore (iron content of 66 percent), after the testing of levels of $149/mt and slightly higher, a remarkable increasing tendency has been observed in iron ore export offers from India.
For the coming period, the pig iron market is expected to be shaped in line with trends in the Chinese iron ore market and price levels in scrap export offers to Turkey.