Global pig iron trade prices have weakened this week amidst bid-offer disparities and increased offers in the market. Pig iron export prices from Brazil and the Black Sea moved down by $15-30/tonne (t) w-o-w. An increased number of offers from India have lowered the bids.
Also, Ukrainian mining and steelmaking company, Metinvest, said on 7 April 2022 that it is partly resuming operations at Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works. Coil producer Zaporizhstal in the city of Zaporizhia, south Ukraine, was put in hot conservation mode in early March.
An Indian mill was heard to have concluded a 30,000 t pig iron export deal recently at around $825/t, FOB.
Notably, around 300,000 tonnes (t) of pig iron export deals have been concluded since mid-Feb’22-end Mar’22, with the highest share of exports bound for the USA, as per the latest information available with SteelMint.
India’s installed merchant pig iron capacity is 7 mnt while the actual production is around 4.80 mnt. Out of the total output of 4.8 mnt in FY’21, production of steel grade pig iron was assessed at 3.65 mnt, and foundry grade material accounted for the rest at 1.15 mnt.
Interestingly, India increased pig iron exports by over 50% y-o-y to 1.3 mnt from 0.86 mnt in CY’20 by catering to the emerging markets such as South Korea and Turkey as well as ratcheting up shipments to traditional buyers such as the USA.
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