Prices in the Turkish pig iron market have been trending sideways, while demand has been at medium levels for a long time now. Ukrainian pig iron offers to Turkey have been fluctuating within a range of $10/mt, while there are different views on the price trend. Turkish buyers have concluded deals for October deliveries from Ukraine in the range of $410-420/mt CFR and it is expected that transaction levels for November shipments will gain clarity in the coming weeks. With the softening in scrap prices in Turkey and downticks in the Chinese iron ore market, buyers have started to anticipate a downtrend for pig iron prices as well. Meanwhile, on the suppliers' side, production costs for pig iron are still considered to be on the high side, and if demand sees a recovery in the second half of September in Europe, there may be little room for pig iron prices to record declines.
Under the current market conditions, pig iron prices are not expected to see significant changes and Ukrainian pig iron export offers will likely maintain their current levels of $390-400/mt FOB.