On 29 April, NINL offered 30,000 tons of Pig iron to international buyers through an export tender (another 30,000 tons as an optional lot), price bids of which opened today.
Specification: N1 grade material containing 1.24% of Silicon
In contrast to streets expectation at around $395-398/MT FOB, the tender received higher bids.
Only a single party made through the technical round and surprised market as it bid highest at $404/MT FoB which converts to Rs 22,450/MT (considering $= Rs 55.57) in comparison to NINL's domestic offers standing at Rs 23,000/MT (ex plant).
A second participant was unable to get through the technical round with a lower bid.
According to Prime Carbon GmbH (Switzerland), a couple of reasons as to why it finally decided to bid high were, “we knew that there would be no seller below $404/MT FoB presently and by the time i.e. in the mid of June the material reaches us, international Pig iron market will hopefully improve. We neither expected many participants nor higher bids”.
NINL is yet to take a decision whether to award the tender or not and if it is to be closed for single or both lots.
There might be some urgent requirement of Pig iron as to why the Switzerland based trader opted for the above decision as earlier also, on 3 May, it was the only participant who got through the technical round for RINL's tender.
RINL had rejected Prime Carbon's bid in the last tender @ 398.18 as minimum price of $404.5/MT was set. Apparently, for the NINL tender, the importer chose to bid $404 as it assumed that NINL might be looking for buyers at not less than $404/MT.
Indian Pig iron importers are well aware that Indian exporters would opt for domestic sales as demand is good presently, rather than awarding the tender at prices quoted quite lower than domestic offers.
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