Having continued to face serious challenges searching for buyers due to sanctions, Russian basic pig iron (BPI) suppliers have remained focused on negotiations with customers in China and Turkey. In particular, SteelOrbis has learned of a recent BPI sale to China done by Russian mill Tulachermet at $475/mt FOB Vladivostok. The material is destined to be shipped in July. The information about the volume in the cargo has remained unconfirmed. While some market insiders have reported a 50,000 mt lot, other sources claim that the transaction was done for 15,000 mt. Taking into account freight, the CFR price may be around $510-515/mt CFR, which corresponds to the bids voiced by Chinese steelmakers from the end of last week. Besides that, information about a large-scale BPI booking (around 150,000 mt in total), done by a major China-based steelmaker, has been circulating in the market, though no details with regard to the deal have been confirmed so far. “I have had a bid at $520/mt CFR for Yangtze upriver, but for 45,000 mt. I have not been able to find support yet (on the financing side). It is difficult to finance Russian business in this quantity,” an international trader commented.
Despite the limited interest in ex-Russia BPI from other countries apart from China and Turkey, its low-priced deals have continued to exert negative pressure on first-tier suppliers, in particular, those based in Brazil. As SteelOrbis reported earlier, 60,000 mt of ex-Brazil BPI has changed hands at $592/mt FOB to the US, down from $800/mt FOB levels targeted previously.