Russian BPI suppliers have been trying to increase prices, following small gains seen in the scrap market. But their success has been rather limited, and the rise was just by a few dollars in low-volume deals.
The SteelOrbis reference price has been settled at $305-315/mt FOB Black Sea, up by $5/mt over the past week, but most traders are still closer to the lower end of the range.
There have been limited basic pig iron sales to Turkey at $305-307/mt FOB. But market sources said that Russia will try to insist on $315/mt FOB in offers, trying to pull up prices from the low sales levels in October.
A few small-volume deals of high quality pig iron from Russia were done this week at prices up $5-10/mt from the October level.
“There is an intention to increase prices, but we need time to see if it will work out. Turkey is the driver of prices,” a trading source said.