Rising concerns and speculation in the pig iron market have emerged amid the offering of pig iron supposedly from Kazakhstan to Turkey in particular, which most market sources believe is of a different origin, from Donbass, the Ukrainian territory illegally occupied by Russia.
A few market sources have confirmed to SteelOrbis that a trading company has been actively offering pig iron over the past two weeks, claiming that it is from Kazakhstan. Market sources said that the offer price level is low - $350-355/mt CFR for smaller volumes and below $350/mt CFR for bigger volumes, while official offers for Russian pig iron from major mills and traders, working in the market for a long time, have been at $365-380/mt CFR Turkey. “It is too risky to buy such pig iron [offered under the guise of being from Kazakhstan]. If we buy, we would ask for the certificate of origin. But in any case, we should ask ourselves why these big volumes of Kazakh pig iron emerge right now?” a Turkish source said. According to sources who received offers, the seller claims it has no problems in sales of pig iron of this origin to Europe. But “no one would even dream of shipping such pig iron to Europe. I don't know for sure, but I think that the Kazakh material is from the occupied [by Russia] territories [in the Donbass area],” a source, involved in trading with Europe, said.
The trading company, offering the ex-Kazakhstan pig iron, was heard to be involved in trading two lots of Indian pig iron in 2025, but no final confirmation regarding the buyers and other details have been confirmed so far. Nevertheless, European buyers will be very careful about purchasing such pig iron of strange origin, market sources believe, after the latest detention of a ship with sanctioned ex-Russia HBI at the Italian port of Brindisi, for which the certificate of origin was falsified, according to the preliminary investigation.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia BPI is stable from last week at $330-340/mt FOB Black Sea with official offers standing at $345/mt FOB from major sellers, while the tradable level is closer to the low end of the range. “At the ruble exchange rate of 77 and taking into account railway tariff increases in December, the costs of the largest pig iron exporter in Russia became $325/mt FOB or more. Plus, considering need to cover accumulated losses, they'll not go below $335/mt FOB,” a market source said.
Trading for Russian pig iron to Turkey has been on pause after an official increase in offers, and major importers will seek below $355/mt CFR, still targeting a $20/mt gap with import HMS scrap.
The lowest price for ex-Russia BPI has been seen for 40,000 mt of basic pig iron by a sanctioned mill to Asia at $350/mt CFR. Though the previous sale to this destination was done over a month ago $5-10/mt lower, this level is still too low for most of the major Russian mills. “It is only one mill [in Russia] can give this [price], as they need to quickly sell a big lot, which is hard,” a trading source said.
