In March this year, world pig iron production amounted to 100.70 million mt, rising by 11.3 percent compared to February and up by 0.3 percent compared to the same month of 2017, according to the preliminary data covering 38 countries accounting for approximately 99 percent of total world blast furnace pig iron production, as announced by the World Steel Association (worldsteel).
Meanwhile, in the first quarter of this year, world pig iron production totaled 292.11 million mt, remaining almost stable compared to the same period of last year.
In the January-March period of the current year, pig iron output in Asia amounted to 227.02 million mt, down 0.3 percent, with 175 million mt produced by China, down 0.8 percent, 19.74 million mt produced by Japan, rising 0.2 percent, and 17.57 million mt produced by India, increasing by 6.47 percent - with all comparisons on year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, in the same period, EU countries produced 24 million mt of pig iron, up 2.3 percent year on year, while the CIS produced 18.68 million mt, down 1.6 percent on year-on-year basis.