World pig iron output dropped slightly in Dec

By Carolina Curiel (ScrapMonster Author)

February 05, 2016 02:15:03 AM

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): According to latest statistics released by the World Steel Association, the global pig iron dropped increased slightly by 1.10% over the previous month to 89.619 million tons during the month of December last year. The global output of pig iron had totaled 90.616 million tons during the month before this.

The total pig iron production by EU-28 countries during December last year was 6.809 Million tonnes (Mt), slightly lower when compared with the November 2015 production of 7.173 Mt. Germany accounted for 1.885 Mt and the UK’s pig iron output totaled 520,000 mt. Italy’s pig iron output rebounded sharply from 419,000 mt in Nov ’15 to 451,000 mt in Dec ’15.

Asian countries accounted for nearly 77% of the global pig iron output during Dec ’15. Among them, China accounted for nearly 60% of the world blast-furnace iron output during the month. The Chinese output totaled 53.330 mt during the month. The Indian pig iron output ended slightly higher at 4.595 million mt in Dec ’15 when compared with the output of 4.589 million mt in November last year. The Japanese pig iron output declined from 6.671 million mt in Nov ’15 to 6.648 million mt in December last year. Also, South Korean output dropped heavily from 3.986 million mt a month before to 3.164 million mt during December ’15.

The US pig iron output climbed higher marginally to 1.850 million mt. A notable increase in production volume was reported by Brazil during the month. The country’s pig iron production surged higher from 2.169 million mt a month ago to 2.276 million mt during Dec ’15. The other major pig iron producing nations were Russia (4.500 million mt, up 3.81% month-on-month) and Ukraine (2.100 million mt, up 5% month-on-month).