By Paul Ploumis 30 Jun 2015 Last updated at 02:54:43 GMT

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): According to latest statistics released by the World Steel Association, the global pig iron output increased by 3.4% over the previous month to 100.532 million tons during the month of May this year. The global of pig iron had totaled 97.231 million tons during the month before this.

The total pig iron production by EU-28 countries during May this year was 8.323 Million tonnes (Mt), higher when compared with the April 2015 production of 7.888 Mt. Germany accounted for 2.385 Mt and the UK’s pig iron output totaled 875,000 mt. France’s pig iron output surged higher from 842,000 mt in April ’15 to 980,000 mt in May ’15.

Among Asian countries, China accounted for nearly 60% of the world blast-furnace iron output in January 2015. The Chinese output totaled 60,961 mt during the month. The Indian pig iron output ended slightly higher at 4.930 million mt in May ’15 when compared with the output of 4.773 million mt in April this year. The Japanese pig iron output increased from 6.403 million mt in Apr ’15 to 6.774 million mt in May this year. Also, South Korean output climbed higher from 3.766 million mt a month before to 3.968 million mt during May ’15.

The US pig iron output climbed higher by almost 6% to 2.10 million mt. A notable increase in production volume was reported by Brazil during the month. The country’s pig iron production surged higher from 2.362 million mt a month ago to 2.444 million mt during May ’15. The other major pig iron producing nations were Russia (4.350 million mt, up 3.3% month-on-month) and Ukraine (1.765 million mt, up 3.46% month-on-month).