In May this year, world pig iron production amounted to 100.53 million mt, increasing by 3.4 percent compared to April and decreasing by 1.2 percent compared to the same month of 2014, according to the preliminary data covering 38 countries accounting for approximately 99 percent of total world blast furnace pig iron production, released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel).
Meanwhile, in the first five months of this year, world pig iron production totaled 489.84 million mt, down 1.55 percent compared to the same period of 2014.
In May, pig iron output in Asia amounted to 77.89 million mt, down 1.47 percent, with 60.96 million mt produced by China, decreasing by two percent, 6.77 million mt produced by Japan, down 5.97 percent, and 4.93 million mt produced by India, increasing by 6.5 percent - with all comparisons on year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, in the same period, EU countries produced 8.32 million mt of pig iron, up 3.2 percent, while the CIS produced 6.41 million mt, down 8.4 percent, both on year-on-year basis.