The situation in the Russian basic pig iron (BPI) market has remained slow in the middle of September due to limited demand and very few active destinations. Even though port stocks in Russia have slowly moved down, buyers in the MENA region are not ready to pay above the latest prices, which have already settled at low levels.
Over the past ten days, a few small-volume deals have been reported to Turkey and Egypt at near $300-305/mt FOB Black Sea. The Turkish buyers’ price idea is at $325/mt CFR with market sources saying that bids for import pig iron are below scrap as Russian sellers have very few markets where to sell. “The market is very slow, which is very unusual for September,” one source said. “It seems that there are lower volumes [of pig iron] stocked in Novorossiysk. I think Turks know about this. So, for now, offers are at $310-320/mt FOB, while buyers are ready to pay $300-310/mt FOB,” he added.
The imposed safeguard duty on imported billet in Egypt may trigger sales of BPI, some sources believe. Some sources hoped for $10-15/mt rebound in pig iron prices this month, but it seems that demand will be still not enough to support prices that much.
“We see slowdown of Russian sales in Far East,” one of sellers said. The latest tradable level in far East has been reported at $345/mt CFR, which translated to $320-325/mt FOB Far East ports of Russia.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia BPI has remained stable at $300-305/mt FOB.
