According to the US Census Bureau data, the value of both US pig iron imports and exports are up during the first nine months of 2017.
Pig iron imports increased in value by 69 percent from $791.46 million in January-September 2016 to $1.34 billion through the first nine months of 2017. US imports from Russia totaled $733.02 million (55 percent of the total import value) while imports from Ukraine totaled $298.581 million (22 percent), Brazil totaled $240.10 million (18 percent), South Africa $31.38 million (2 percent), and India $25.28 million (2 percent). US pig imports totaled $947.66 million for the full-year 2016.
Nearly $1.27 billion (95 percent) out of the $1.34 billion worth of pig iron imports were shipped via New Orleans, Mobile, Charleston, Cleveland and Chicago.
The value of US pig iron exports increased over 300 percent from $6.05 million during January-September 2016 to $18.65 million in the same period in 2017. The top three destinations of US pig iron exports in the January-September 2017 period were Canada ($15.72 million, 84 percent of the total export value), Mexico ($1.71 million, 9 percent) and India ($578,844, 3 percent).
Both Canadian and Mexican imports of US pig iron more than doubled over the previous year while India remained stable. Per US customs districts, Pembina, North Dakota (47 percent of the value total) and Detroit (37 percent) shipped the most pig iron followed by Laredo, Texas (9 percent). US pig iron exports totaled $10.48 million during the full-year 2016.