Indian domestic pig iron prices have moved down by INR 500/mt ($8/mt) over the past week to around INR 18,000/mt ($291/mt) ex-works with medium scale producers cutting their base prices although this has failed to revive sentiments and transactions volumes have remained low, traders said on Tuesday, October 8.
According to two Kolkata-based traders, producers like Tata Metalliks have reduced prices by $8/mt to boost sagging demand but this has failed to improve transaction volumes in the market since few traders have been willing to conclude deliveries ahead of the festivals in India later this month.
Market sources said that there have not been any reports available on the export tender for 60,000 mt of pig iron from Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) which had been opened in the previous week, although it is heard that company officials are expecting offers in the range of $320-325/mt.
The sources said that the short-term domestic trend will be decided by what happens in terms of export tenders, although the market is extremely cautious since NINL had to cancel an export tender for 50,000 mt in early September owing to the poor response.
$1=INR 61.81