The Black Sea pig iron market has been in a lull this week due to bearish sentiment among buyers in Turkey and Italy, as well as the approaching Eid holidays in the Muslim world slowing down business activity, market participants inform Kallanish.

Kallanish assessed Russia-origin pig iron at $400-420/tonne fob compared to $400-440/t fob Black Sea a week earlier.

A trading source assessed Russian pig iron from non-sanctioned producers at $405-420/t fob.

The price indication for Tula Steel material was around $400/t fob, with the producer staying out of the market until the second half of May, with July-August material to be on offer then.

Buyers in Turkey were not ready to pay more than $400/t cfr Turkey, according to a Russian producer and a Turkish trading source.

Besides the depreciation of the lira, slow business activity before elections on 14 May in Turkey and falling scrap import prices may add more pressure on pig iron values.

Italian pig iron prices may also soon fall significantly from the current assessment at around $510/t cfr Italy, impacted by a large tonnage rumoured to be arriving from India.

Some sources suggest the origin of the cargo is different. Market participants were discussing a story about a cargo of around 35,000 tonnes of pig iron loaded from the Black Sea, making a voyage to India and then arriving in Italy with the draught unchanged throughout the journey. This indicates that it remained laden but brought India-origin material on documents.

Those lots of pig iron are suspected to have originated from Donbas/Luhansk, the Ukrainian territories seized by Russia, and therefore the trade of the cargo originated from the internationally unrecognised so-called republic was illegal.

Current prices for India-origin pig iron were at $480-500/t fob India, according to a trading source.

Ukrainian suppliers were wanting to sell pig iron at around $575-580/t cfr to the USA, but found no interest. A trading source suggests the material could be put in stock in Nola. Large USA pig iron buyers, Nucor and SDI, have made major purchases covering June and were not expected to be in the market amid predominantly bearish sentiment for US domestic scrap prices for May.

US domestic scrap was settled for April at mostly lower prices than in March and was facing further pressure on low demand for exports and growing supply availability for May. The direction of US domestic scrap prices is an important indicator for US buyers of pig iron.

“There is uncertainty in the market. US buyers have bought all they needed until July. Those who may need material would wait for cheaper prices,” a trading source says.

“I don’t think anything will happen during the current week, as major PI market players are gathering next week in UAE and will not decide anything at least until then,” another trading source observes, referring to the International Iron & Metallics Association (IIMA) members meeting in Dubai.