The US import basic pig iron (BPI) market has been silent and uncertain as the market is awaiting the new tariffs on Brazilian material, which may drastically change the picture in the market. For now, all trading with Brazil has stalled, and rare deals at lower levels into the US are seen only for Indian pig iron.
As SteelOrbis reported earlier, Brazilian pig iron, included in the list of exemptions from the US import tariffs since 2025, has not been included in the new list announced by the US Trade Representative (USTR) on June 1. With this exclusion, Brazilian pig iron will be subject to a 25 percent import tariff in the US under section 301. In addition, under a separate investigation, a 12.5 percent tariff is proposed on the 45 nations, including Brazil, deemed to have failed completely to enforce a domestic ban on forced labor imports.
The 10 percent Section 122 emergency duty is currently applied for Brazilian pig iron, but it will officially expire on July 24, 2026 and the new tariffs should be finalized in mid-July. The negotiations are tough between the US and Brazil and for now there are no signs that pig iron will again be excluded from the new tariffs, and if so, this could have a huge impact on the market. In 2025, the US imported 3.365 million mt of pig iron from Brazil, equivalent to 83 percent of Brazil’s total exports of the product and up to 70 percent of total US imports.
“Due to the lack of definition of the tariffs, the market is quiet, there is simply no price as there is no understanding of the final tariffs and of who will pay,” a Brazilian producer said. The last confirmed deal was at $530/mt CFR for Brazilian BPI to the US, equivalent to $500/mt FOB, so with trading stalled the price from Brazil is nominal and stable at $495-500/mt FOB.
If the new tariffs are finalized at the proposed 37.5 percent in total, it will result in a surge by $190/mt in the ex-Brazil price to the US, up to $720/mt CFR. Some market sources said they think this is too sharp and that the US may stop at only 25 percent, which may still result in an additional $130-135/mt burden. “In any case, if these tariffs become effective for pig iron, the impact will be huge. “Brazilian pig iron producers always complain the price is too low... Seriously, I think that, if customers don't absorb a good share of the impact, we will see a drastic reduction in output here,” a Brazilian source said.
In addition, as US domestic supply as well as alternative options are limited, the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) strongly advocates keeping pig iron on the USTR tariff exemption lists.
Apart from Brazilian pig iron, there has been information that a lot of 30,000 mt of Indian BPI was traded to the US at $495/mt CFR last week. Some market sources said that the final price was close to $500/mt CFR, but in any case it signals that in general US customers are not eager to pay higher for pig iron in general. “US consumers are discounting Indian pig iron by five percent due to the possibility of much higher dirt and fines, so, for example, they would see $495/mt CFR as the equivalent of $520/mt CFR out of Ukraine or Brazil,” a US-based source said. As a result, the import BPI reference price in the US has settled at $520-530/mt CFR this week, slightly down from $525-532/mt CFR last week.
