India: SAIL Pig Iron Auction Receives Dull Response Despite Reduction in Base Price

SAIL's pig iron auction conducted today for 12,000 MT steel grade pig iron from its Rourkela Steel plant (Eastern India) has received weak response with around 70% material remaining unsold.

As per sources, the company had reduced base price by INR 300/MT to INR 27,200/MT as against last auction in which base price was at INR 27,500/MT; ex-plant, Rourkela.

Participants stated that, near to 3,700 MT (30%) pig iron has been booked in today's auction and remaining about 8,300 MT (70%) material remained unsold.

The reason behind the limited participation stated by sources is falling steel (billet) prices in domestic market & competitive offers by private mills.

It should be noted that, billet prices in Indian domestic market continued fall due to weak demand and slump by INR 500-1,000/MT (USD 7-14) in a week. In line competitive offers of pig iron through private producers, is evaluated at INR 27,000-27,100/MT ex-Jajpur(Odisha) & INR 27,500-28,000/MT ex-Jharkhand/ex-Durgapur; eastern India.

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), is India's govt. owned steel maker has an annual installed capacity of over 21 MnT and produces all kind of steel products. The producer have its plants in across India except in Northern India.