By the end of last week, a major US steelmaker booked a cargo of ex-Ukraine basic pig iron (BPI) at $505/mt CFR Port of New Orleans, SteelOrbis has learned. Although the price in the deal in question is slightly higher than the levels accepted by US customers in the previous deals for ex-Brazil BPI, most market insiders reject any uptrend in price, claiming, “A slight premium was accepted due to the better quality compared to Brazilian material and there is no apparent increase”.
As SteelOrbis reported previously, in early January ex-Brazil BPI was booked to the US at around $495-500/mt CFR Port of New Orleans. Meanwhile, lately, another Ukrainian BPI producer has been testing the market with offers at $530-540/mt CFR Port of New Orleans, though failing to attract the attention of buyers.