Posted on 12 Apr 2019
Black Sea pig iron trade has been quiet this week with slightly lower offers and no new deals anywhere, market sources tell Kallanish.
Offers are at $350/tonne fob Black Sea and $370/t cfr Nola, with more sales expected this month in the US, as sources say this is the only market that is currently buying. Despite the earlier understanding that US buyers are stocked up sufficiently for the next few weeks, regular long-term supply contract shipments will continue. This is in spite of worsening ferrous scrap sentiment, which is somewhat contained by rising iron ore prices, sources say.
Italy remains on the fence, as current offers at $375-385/t cfr are too high for large stockists and portside stocks are sufficient. Several sources note that large arrivals have been missing from the market for almost two months, however, so these stocks are decreasing fast. There are expectations of material arriving from the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), but it will not arrive before the beginning of March (see Kallanish 9 April). Total dispatches of DPR's pig iron from Novorossiysk in April are around 150,000t.
Some sources say there are expectations of increased tonnages from Russia as upgrades at one major mill may result in higher pig iron volumes available for export. Some traders deny this, however, noting that they are not expecting an increased tonnage of Russian-origin offers.
