The weekly Davis Index for basic pig iron (BPI) ticked down by $1/mt to $577/mt cfr New Orleans port on Thursday as transactions came to a standstill following about two months of price surges.
The latest BPI bookings to the US were from Brazil and CIS last week, priced at $575/mt cfr Nola. New offer prices remain at $590-600/mt cfr Nola, same as Jan 7, but offers are now being met with little consumer interest.
Offer levels along with the next sales prices for BPI are projected to remain unchanged or decline as scrap alternatives may have reached a price peak.
The Davis Index for nodular pig iron (NPI) imports moved up by $4/mt to $655/mt cfr Nola. The material remains in tight supply, but the latest offers and bids heard for NPI have ranged from $630-680/mt cfr Nola with offers indicating May or late Q2 delivery.
The weekly Davis Index for US hot briquetted iron (HBI) imports retracted its gain from last week and dropped by $33/mt to $435/mt cfr Nola. New offers have not been reported and the latest price evaluation for the material correlates with assumed buyer interest along with price sentiment for other grades.