Indian domestic pig iron prices have continued to suffer from the twin pressures of low demand and oversupply during the past week, moving down by INR 400/mt ($6/mt) to the range of INR 18,200-18,400/mt ($287-290/mt) ex-works, with traders aggressively extending discounts in order to keep liquidating their inventories, traders said on Tuesday, September 17.
According to two Kolkata-based traders, large producers have been maintaining base prices unchanged to cope with the high cost of iron ore but traders are saddled with large inventories and have been forced to increase discounts irrespective of volumes in order to reduce inventories and carrying costs.
However, market sources state that some domestic pig iron producers like Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) had offered the lower price of INR 1,000/mt ($16/mt), but this was only for a very limited period and effective only for deliveries taken during the past week.
The sources pointed out that transaction volumes have been very low even for the limited period offer since market intermediaries have been reluctant to stock up in view of persistent low demand from the foundry sector.
The sources said that, according to reports received in the market, NINL was negotiating for export of 50,000-60,000/mt of pig iron for shipment in the current month but this was not confirmed by the company.