Posted on 14 Aug 2020
Higher Asian and US demand have raised Brazilian pig iron prices, Kallanish learns from market participants. Levels have moved up by almost $10/tonne since the beginning of the month and by $20/t over mid-July.
“The Brazilian market is gradually emerging from the Covid-19 crisis, supported by increasing demand from China and the US in recent weeks,” a market participant says. “The lower availability of material, however, is still persisting.”
Large companies are still trying to ramp up their production while evaluating post-coronavirus market demand, according to another source.
“The Brazilian iron ore and steel market is adapting to the 'new reality' and, despite the current good demand from Asia and North America, large steel mills still have doubts as to whether or not to increase their production capacity,” a source says. "The sector, however, hopes to overcome the crisis sooner than expected, as most producers have recently announced the restart of their halted blast furnaces.”
Brazil’s pig iron export prices are now reported at $335-340/tonne fob Brazil. At the end of July, these were just above $325/t fob.
The latest data from Brazilian steelmakers’ association Instituto Aço Brasil (IAB) show Brazil increased pig iron production 84.7% on-year in July to 376,000t.
Source:Kallanish
