Over the past week, prices in the local Indian pig iron market have increased by INR 200/mt to INR 28,800/mt ($410/mt) ex-works, even though sentiments remained negative as vindicated by continued offer of discounts in select regions, traders said on Wednesday, August 15.
“The gains of the week have been too small to forecast a turnaround in market conditions,” a Kolkata, based trader said.
“There is clear over production by all the major producers. That there is too much material floating in the market was indicated by the fact that discounts continued to be prevalent in eastern and central regional markets,” he added.
Sources said that pig iron offers in eastern and central region averaged around INR 28,500/mt ($408/mt) per ton, net of discounts.
The sources said that most pig iron producers are operating at over 100 percent capacity utilizations of their plants and this would continue to put pressures on prices, more so since no export tenders are reported in the market during the past week.
In fact, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL), one of the largest pig iron producers have continued to surpass its monthly production recorded reporting an all time high monthly pig iron production of 76,687 mt during July 2018, exceeding its previous monthly record of 69,780 mt achieved during June 2018, the sources added to substantiate the impact of over production on prices.
$1 = INR 70.23