• Skip to main content

    Analysis

    Miller on Pig Iron: Brazilian market hums with activity

    Written by Stephen Miller


    There has been some recent activity of exports of basic pig iron from Brazil. Sources there agree on the activity but diverge on the pricing. What is new to the market in Brazil is the buying interest from the European Union, Italy in particular.

    Prior to 2022 when the Russian-Ukrainian conflict began, Russia and Ukraine pig iron imports to the US played a large role in the US market. The balance came from northern Brazil, despite the southern regions of Brazil producing more than three times the quantity of the North.

    Stephen Miller

    Read more from Stephen Miller

    Latest in Analysis

    SMU Survey: Current Buyers’ Sentiment rises slightly as Future Sentiment dips

    SMU’s Current Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Index ticked up slightly this week, while Future Sentiment fell, according to our latest market survey. Every two weeks, SMU polls thousands of steel-industry executives, asking them to rate their companies’ chances of success today and also three to six months down the road. We use their responses to calculate our proprietary Current and Future Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Indices, measures tracked since 2008.

    galvalume steel coil

    SMU Survey: Mill willingness to negotiate price at lowest levels since 2021

    The majority of steel buyers responding to our latest market survey reported that mills continue to hold a firm grip on prices. The share of buyers reporting that mills were negotiable fell this week to the lowest rate seen in over five years. Every two weeks, SMU surveys service center and manufacturer buyers asking if mills are negotiable on new spot sheet and plate orders. In this week’s survey, just 3% of respondents said mills were willing to talk price to secure an order (Figure 1). This is down 11 percentage points from our mid-October survey.