The weekly Davis Index for CIS basic pig iron dropped by $16/mt to $281/mt fob Black Sea on Friday due to a lack of buyers.
Demand for pig iron from the CIS remains weak, with China the only buyer. Some negotiations are in progress, although no deals have been reported yet in early April. Bids from China decreased to $305-310/mt cfr after active bookings at $325-330/mt cfr during the second half of March. According to market participants, China purchased around 500,000mt of pig iron from the CIS and Brazil.
Pig iron markets in the US and Turkey are inactive. American importers are focusing on developments in their local ferrous scrap markets before resuming pig iron bookings. Market participants anticipate scrap prices to significantly decrease in the US between $40/gt and $80/gt.
Italy’s pig iron market is still inactive as the country remains on strict lockdown to contain COVID-19. As a result, the weekly Davis Index for the CIS pig iron in Italy, which is still based on current fob prices, dropped by $18/mt to $305/mt cfr on Friday.