India: SAIL Reduces Pig Iron Offers for August Deliveries

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has reduced basic grade (steel grade) pig iron offers by around INR 700/MT (USD 10) from its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) based in Central India, SteelMint learned from market sources.

The latest offers for Steel grade pig iron reported at around INR 23,800/MT (USD 337), however the last offers were reported at near to INR 24,500/MT (USD 347), ex-plant & excluding GST. The current offers also attract discount of INR 100-200/MT on more than 1,000 MT bookings, as sources reported to SteelMint.

It seems the prices have dropped on account of constant fall in steel & pig iron offers by private mills. It should be noted that the private pig iron producers have cut price by INR 500-1,000/MT (USD 7-14) in a week & INR 1,500-2,500/MT (USD 21-35) during Jul'19, owing to plunge in steel (Billet) prices by INR 1,500-2,500/MT (USD 21-35).

The landed cost of BSP's pig iron to Raipur based furnaces would be around INR 24,100-24,200/MT, meanwhile the stockiest in market are offering material at same price range at INR 24,200/MT FoR Raipur; excluding GST.

SAIL is India's largest steel producer in terms of capacity with an annual installed capacity of over 21 MnT. Meanwhile in context to Pig iron NINL is the largest merchant producer of pig iron with an annual hot metal production capacity of about 1.1 MnT.

As per reports NINL’s blast furnace off operations as MMTC withholds cash flow. MMTC the largest promoter in NINL with an equity of 49.9 per cent, has stopped provisioning for the steel unit’s operating expenses after it filed its plan on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to divest its stake in the loss accumulating PSU.