Confusion ‘name of the game’ with pig iron exempt from port fees, gridlocked by tariffs
Published by:Christian Willbern<>
22 Apr 2025 @ 16:14 UTC

US pig iron imports have been exempted from US port fees set to start in October, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday April 21. The Trump administration revised its early-March port fee proposal to target [liquid natural gas], cars and containers, a US source said.
Pig iron shipments only come in on bulk vessels, which are exempted from port fees, sources told Fastmarkets.
US port fees on Chinese-built/owned container vessels will roll out over the next three years in increments of $30 per net ton for Chinese vessel operators and increments of $5 per ton on Chinese-built vessels, according to major media outlets.
Starting on October 14, China-based vessel operators will incur a $50 per ton port fee on arriving vessels, while Chinese-built vessels will pay a port fee of $18 per ton, major media outlets reported.
The first round of port fee increases will start on April 17, 2026, and subsequent increases will be announced annually.
The Trump administration’s initial port fee plan proposed fees of up to $1.5 million on Chinese-built and owned vessels.
Sources expected port fees to disrupt pig iron shipments, as about every single vessel owner owned Chinese-built vessels, the US source told Fastmarkets in late March.
Despite the relief from potential port fees, the pig iron market stagnated as producers and buyers remained gridlocked over US tariffs.
A second US source reported an offer for low-phosphorus pig iron heard around $505 per tonne FOB New Orleans, but no concrete buying activity followed the proposal.
Confusion has been the name of the game! Buyers are telling pig iron producers that they have to reduce their prices to offset the tariffs, while pig iron producers are saying that tariffs are the buyer’s problem, a Brazilian source said.
A lot of water will go beneath this bridge before a decision is made, they continued.
The Brazilian source noted that pig iron shipments are available as early as July and prices will only be reached when producers will be short on sales.
As a result, Fastmarkets’ weekly assessments for pig iron basic grade, Brazil, fob New Orleans and for pig iron basic grade, Ukraine/Russia, fob New Orleans stood at $485-525 per tonne on Monday, unchanged from April 14.
Hot-briquetted iron (HBI) and Brazilian foundry pig iron prices remained flat this week due to a lack of market activity, sources told Fastmarkets.
A third US source noted that there’s not much liquidity in the deep sea [HBI] market due to valuations versus cost.
The US imposed a 10% tariff on imported HBI and Brazilian foundry pig iron, adding more stagnation to markets already undergoing a lack of demand, Fastmarkets understands.
The 10% baseline tariff also applies to other iron metallics, such as direct-reduced iron (DRI).
The US mainly imports DRI from Trinidad and Tobago, home to one of Nucor’s DRI plants.
Trinidad and Tobago-origin DRI imports reached 259,537 tonnes in the year to date, down from 310,147 during the same period the year prior, according to the latest US Census trade data.
Total DRI imports reached 1,521,637 tonnes in 2024.
US-based DRI producers also face rising supply costs as iron ore imports — the main ingredient in DRI — fall under the 10% baseline tariffs.
Fastmarkets subsequently assessed hot-briquetted iron, fob New Orleans and pig iron foundry grade, Brazil, fob New Orleans at $410-445 per tonne and $575-595 per tonne respectively on Monday, both unchanged from the prior week.