• Skip to main content

    Prices

    January 6, 2025

    Pig iron import tags continue to slide

    Written by Stephen Miller

    Prices for pig iron imports into the US continue to retreat in the face of regional weakness in demand for ferrous raw materials in South Asia and the Far East. The export of Chinese semi-finished steel, as well as finished steel, has reduced the demand for scrap and pig iron in these countries. The Western sanctions on pig iron from Russia are contributing to this situation, as these produces seek markets for their material and have to keep lowering their offer prices.

    This has caused pig iron producers in India to offer basic pig iron to US-based buyers at extremely reduced prices. US steelmakers have sought to bring pig iron prices more in line with scrap prices for the last two years. Now their efforts are getting an assist from the worldwide turmoil in the ferrous trade.

    Stephen Miller

    Stephen Miller started his career in the scrap metal industry in 1978 at Luria Brothers in Cleveland. Over the last 40-plus years, he has worked in all capacities in the trading business. He has had positions in both domestic and international scrap trading. In addition to scrap, Miller was at the forefront of the pig iron trade and established a pig iron distribution company under the name of Ferrosource, Inc. Most recently, Miller has concentrated on the scrap export market and regularly does consulting for several companies in the industry.

    Read more from Stephen Miller

    Latest in Prices

    Plate supply squeeze tightens as demand presses higher

    The domestic plate market is showing few signs of relief for steel buyers. Lead times are stretching well beyond seasonal norms, spot availability has all but evaporated, and mills are drawing hard lines on contract volumes heading into 2027 negotiations. And the supply squeeze will likely intensify in a market that some industry sources say is structurally undersupplied because of stringent US trade and tariff policies. Imports have been arriving in larger volumes, and the expectation is they will continue to tick higher into 2027. The big question is whether those foreign tons will arrive in volumes sufficient to provide the relief steel consumers want.