Brazilian basic pig iron (BPI) sales have remained active since, after a long pause lasting over a month, most producers have been trying to sell September shipment allocations. As a result, over the past two weeks a total of 215,000 mt has been sold.
Two contracts for 50,000 mt each of ex-Brazil basic pig iron with 0.15 percent phosphorus content have been concluded with two major US mills at $398/mt FOB net for the seller or $402/mt FOB including financing. This price is very close to last week's deals signed at $401/mt FOB net for the exporter. The CFR price for US customers is assessed at around $427-429/mt CFR in these deals.
In addition, a smaller tonnage of 15,000 mt of Brazilian BPI has been traded for Mexico at $437/mt CFR, but, as freight for a smaller volume is higher, the FOB price has been assessed by the market sources to be also near $400/mt FOB.
Though Brazilian pig iron was excluded from the 50 percent tariffs in the US and trading resumed last week, the overall nervousness has remained. “The story with tariffs will not end anytime soon. Take the case of India. Now it has a 25 percent additional fee because of business with Russia [total tariff on India is 50 percent in the US]. Brazil imports a lot of diesel and fertilizers from Russia, so it remains a potential target for additional tariffs,” a trading source commented to SteelOrbis.
The tradable price for BPI with lower phosphorus content has been assessed at $435-445/mt CFR in the US, including both Brazilian and Ukrainian origins.
The reference price for import BPI in the US has settled at $427-440/mt CFR, with the mid-point at $433.5/mt CFR, down by $6.5/mt on average over the past week.
As for the future price trend, Brazilian BPI prices are expected to remain stable in the coming weeks. “I think producers will resist as much as possible reducing their prices because of costs. Also, the exchange rate is not helping. It ended the day slightly below 5.4 on Wednesday,” a Brazilian source said.