The weekly Davis Index for CIS basic pig iron was unchanged at $320/mt fob Black Sea on Friday as trading activity slowed down.
Deals were scarce in the global pig iron market and the only booking was heard in Turkey at $335-340/mt cfr Marmara for Russian-origin material. A few days before this transaction, Ukrainian pig iron was sold at around $330/mt to this country. Turkish mills were very active in scrap and pig iron purchases in the second half of July, ahead of the Kurban Bayrami holiday.
Some negotiations were reported in the Italian pig iron market with CIS suppliers raising their offers from $340/mt cfr to $345-348/mt cfr this week though, bids varied in the range of $330-335/mt cfr. As a result, the weekly Davis Index for CIS pig iron in Italy rose by $3/mt to $338/mt cfr on Friday.
The Chinese pig iron market was quiet in the last week of July, however, CIS suppliers remained firm and continued to target $360/mt cfr minimum as they have already sold significant tonnages of the material. One Russian exporter is fully sold out for September shipment.