Iran Offers Pig Iron to Italy

Iran- and India-origin basic pig iron with a high manganese content has been offered to Italy, as Ukraine’s absence from the market since late February continues.

Basic pig iron from Iran and India has been offered to Italy at $350-360 per ton CFR, an Italian buyer source was quoted as saying by Metal Bulletin.

“The price is workable, but we don’t need to buy as we have enough stocks,” the source said.

“Also, comparing the current prices, it makes sense for us to prefer scrap and hot briquetted iron prices over pig iron, even if we needed to buy now,” the contact added.

Italy was one of the major buyers of high-manganese pig iron from Ukraine, until illegal railroad blockades were put up in the east of the country at the end of January.

As a result, Ukraine’s Donetskstal was idled in late February and has not been offering its high-manganese pig iron to the export markets since then.

No offers from compatriot steelmaker Metinvest have been heard either.

In the absence of new offers or bids for Ukraine-origin material, Metal Bulletin’s export price assessment for high-manganese pig iron from the CIS region was $310-350 per ton FOB Black Sea on April 6, stable week-on-week.

The assessment consisted of potentially workable prices for Black Sea high-manganese pig iron for Italian and Turkish buyers, as well as the price potentially workable for Ukrainian producers.

Besides the Iranian and Indian offers, Italy also got offers of high-manganese pig iron from Brazil at $365-370 per ton CFR.

Metal Bulletin’s price assessment for imported high-manganese pig iron in Italy was $360-370 per ton CFR on Thursday, up from $350-370 per ton FOB last week.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Tulachermet was said to be enjoying being the major CIS-region supplier in Ukraine’s absence.

The mill was heard to have sold 7,000 tons of its low-manganese pig iron at $400 per ton FOB Baltic Sea and 10,000 tons of similar material at $405 per ton FOB.

The mill’s current offers were heard at $400-405 per ton FOB Baltic Sea.

Metal Bulletin’s weekly price assessment for CIS-origin low-manganese pig iron was $400-405 per ton FOB on April 6, up from $385-400 per ton FOB last week.