The weekly Davis Index for CIS basic pig iron jumped by $45/mt to $538/mt fob Black Sea on Friday as offers soared amid limited allocation of the material.
Most CIS pig iron producers are out of the market, because they have already sold significant tonnages for February and March shipments. The only sale was done from Russia at $535/mt fob Black Sea to a trader. Price indications from other CIS producers were reported at $550-560/mt fob Black Sea, while one Russian supplier raised offers to $630-640/mt fob Black/ Baltic Sea.
A new transaction was fixed in Turkey, in which an international trader sold CIS-origin pig iron at $545/mt cfr for distribution.
The weekly Davis Index for CIS pig iron in Italy surged by $57/mt to $560/mt cfr on Friday amid bullish suppliers, however, negotiations were slow ahead of the Christmas holidays and no bookings were heard.
Demand for pig iron remained slow in China as the country is expected to resume ferrous scrap import in 2021. In the meantime, some US importers were looking for the material, though there were no sales from the CIS to the USA reported as exporters are targeting a minimum of $600/mt cfr, while a cargo of Brazilian pig iron was purchased at $558/mt cfr.