European importers have managed to get small discounts for imported pig iron and HBI in June compared to offers made in late May. However, most major sellers have not agreed to the lowest bids from steel mills, so there has been a rather gradual price decline in Europe in June.
Weak summer demand and depressed global raw material market conditions have resulted in a downward trend for imported basic pig iron (BPI) in Europe. There have been talks about a sale of ex-Ukraine BPI at $435/mt CFR in mid-June, down from the $440-445/mt CFR offers seen in late May. Moreover, some market sources said the deal involved low-phosphorus pig iron, and that for high-phosphorus material, buyers are targeting at least $10-20/mt lower.
There has also been a rumor about a sale of up to 30,000 mt of ex-Africa BPI. Though the final price has not been confirmed, market sources believe that it was closer to $410-415/mt CFR. Also, ex-Africa BPI was offered at $420/mt CFR last week. The lower prices for African pig iron are due to its lower quality compared to traditional suppliers from Ukraine and Brazil.
Some talks about ex-Brazil BPI offers to Europe earlier in June at $415/mt CFR have also been heard, but were denied by most major exporters, who said there have been no deals below $400/mt FOB and that their primary target remains the US market. Some market sources believe that this price level resembles Indian offers, not Brazilian. The rumor suggested that one of the major Indian mills was in negotiations at $360/mt FOB, but there has been no confirmation that the deal was closed.
The reference price for imported BPI in Europe has been settled at $410-435/mt CFR.
In the European import HBI market, the tradable level has been at $310-320/mt CFR, remaining relatively stable compared to late May. Some deals for ex-Libya HBI have been heard at the higher end of the range. There have been a limited number of offers from Asia for HBI to Europe, so sourcing is mainly from Libya and Qatar, sources said.