Activity in the European basic pig iron (BPI) market increased in the second half of October as customers were interested in purchases of BPI that would arrive before the end of the year, before the new CBAM rules are implemented from January 1, 2026.
According to market sources, 50,000 mt of Brazilian basic pig iron were traded at $413-416/mt CFR, depending on the source. Though there has been no official information, market sources believe these volumes will be shipped in late November. Some market sources believe that another smaller cargo of Brazilian material was also sold to Europe, but this has remained unconfirmed by the time of publication.
In addition, there have been reports about 30,000 mt of Indian pig iron sold to Italy. The FOB price has been reported by a number of market sources at $360-365/mt FOB, which translates to $400-405/mt on CFR basis.
Also, a small Ukrainian pig iron cargo has been traded at $420/mt CFR. “Offers from Ukraine are at $420-425/mt CFR for the last couple of weeks, but the problem is availability [of pig iron that could arrive before the end of December],” a trader said.
The SteelOrbis reference price has settled at $400-420/mt CFR, which is up from $390-407/mt CFR settled three weeks ago, but almost stable on average from $405-416/mt CFR reported last week.