Indian Pig Iron Export Remains Nil Over High Domestic Demand in Sept’16

Indian Pig iron exports remained nil in Sept’16 owing to higher domestic demand.

Sharp surge in coking coal prices by USD 80/MT, FOB Australia in a month has attracted Indian Pig iron exporters to offer their material in the domestic market on better realization.

MMTC, India’s largest Pig iron exporter closed its last export tender for 30,000 MT Pig iron on 08 Sept’16. The company had managed to attract two participants and highest bid quoted was at USD 247/MT, FoB India. But, the company had canceled the tender due to better realization in the domestic market.

NINL increased its last domestic offers by INR 3000/MT and offered N1-grade material at INR 20,700/MT. However, the new price circular is yet to released. The company is selling the material in the domestic market at better realizations as compared to exports.

Other major Pig iron ore exporters namely SAIL and Vedanta Resources also kept themselves away from exporting and focused entirely on domestic sales. SAIL, RSP’s tender recently received the highest bid at INR 20,500-20,900/MT against INR18,000/MT in the month of Aug’16.

According to sources, currently, Vedanta Resources also increased its steel grade Pig iron offers at INR 20,500/MT which were around INR 17,000 MT during Aug’16.

It is to be noted that India exports steel grade Pig iron to Bangladesh and Thailand in FY17. In Sept’16, Bangladesh has imported around 27,000 MT billets to fulfill it’s steel making requirement.

On the other hand, Thailand, another Indian Pig iron export destination had already imported sufficient quantity of Pig iron from Brazil in Jun-Jul’16 to fulfill next 2-3 months requirement.

Indian Pig iron exports in 2016 (till Sept’16)

Qty in MT
Source: SteelMint Research
Provisional Data