This week, new deals for ex-Zimbabwe pig iron have been actively discussed in the European import market.
After the previous sales for 22,000 mt of this origin material have already been shipped to Italy, now there are rumors of sales of 100,000 mt from Zimbabwe. This information has been denied by European sources, but negotiations for smaller volumes are ongoing and confirmed. “It has been offered, but let’s see next week,” a source in Europe said. The previous tonnage was sold at near $400/mt CFR. One of the sources said that the recently discussed 100,000 mt cannot be easily sold given the slow demand in Europe. But it seems that buyers may be interested in this origin, as the quality of the pig iron from Zimbabwe is good, and the price may be lower than the prices of traditional sellers like Ukraine and Brazil. Offers from Ukraine are at $425/mt CFR in Europe. “The issue is transportation as the lead time is much longer,” another trader said.
Tsingshan Holding Group launched its blast furnace in Zimbabwe in June 2024 and its steelmaking capacity started operations in April this year. Capacity is 600,000 mt and it is planned to increase it to 1.2 million mt, as the company announced lately.
Apart from Europe, this year Turkey has imported 13,799 mt of pig iron from Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, there are rumors that pig iron of unknown origin entered Italy recently. The origin has been rumored to be Libya, Lebanon or some other Middle Eastern country. “There is a big investigation going on,” a European source said, as some sources believe it may be illegally shipped Russian pig iron, as its quota finished in March.
The ex-Russia pig iron export reference price is still stable at $300-305/mt FOB Black Sea, while sales have been very slow in the past few weeks. “Now we can see even a sharp drop in the spread between basic and low-manganese pig iron from Russia. Demand from Turkey is extremely low,” a market source said.
