In February this year, global pig iron production amounted to 92 million metric tons, decreasing by 5.2 percent compared to the previous month and up 3.4 percent on year-on-year basis, according to the preliminary data covering 38 countries accounting for approximately 99 percent of total world blast furnace iron production in 2011 released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel).
In the meantime, in the first two months of this year, world pig iron production amounted to 189 million metric tons, rising by 4.7 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2012.
In February this year, the top pig iron producer in the world according to worldsteel was again China with 57 million mt, down 2.9 percent compared to January and up 6.8 percent year on year, constituting 62 percent of global pig iron production. Japan followed China with 6.4 million mt of pig iron production in February, declining 9.5 percent month on month and down slightly by 0.5 percent from February 2012.