Over the past week, demand for ex-CIS pig iron in target markets has remained weak and market players have remained on the sidelines. Having accelerated their bookings of ex-CIS pig iron during previous weeks, buyers in the US market have refrained from concluding new deals, while pig iron inventories in the US have increased as a result of the purchases concluded in the second half of May. For now, no new ex-CIS pig iron deals have been heard in the main target markets, while CIS-based pig iron suppliers have maintained their offers unchanged week on week at $380-400/mt FOB. Meanwhile, ex-CIS pig iron quotations to the US have also remained stable in the past week at $410-415/mt CFR.
On the other hand, ex-CIS pig iron offers to Italy are still at $390-415/mt CFR, while traders in Porto Marghera continue to give price offers at $380-390/mt CFR as they are able to offer lower prices for their pig iron tonnages in stock. Accordingly, demand for ex-CIS pig iron in Italy has slowed down significantly. Summing up, CIS-based pig iron suppliers continue to face weak demand in the US, Italy and Turkey - markets to which they regularly conclude sales - while they have been heard to conclude sales to Romania at $400-403/mt CFR.