Bid prices for ex-Russia basic pig iron (BPI) have declined significantly, following the decreases seen in the scrap segment in Turkey. Though Russian sellers have been resisting decreases so far, it is clear that new deals for August shipment will be signed at discounts.
The SteelOrbis reference price for ex-Russia BPI has settled at $360-370/mt FOB Black Sea, down $7.5/mt on average over the past week. The higher end of the range corresponds to the offer level for August shipment heard this week and which translates to around $395/mt CFR Turkey. But even though this level was reported in some deals last week, by now all bids are already lower; $380-385/mt CFR levels have been heard from some sources, which is in line with the latest deals for HMS I/II (80:20) in Turkey. “All buyers will push for discounts now. After scrap settled at its lowest levels, pig iron suppliers have only two options - wait and don’t sell or cut prices,” a market source said.
There have been rare HBI offers to Turkey recently and the lowest of them were for Iranian material at $330-340/mt CFR. There have been no reports of fresh Russian HBI offers, but they are assessed at $350/mt CFR.
