In March this year, world pig iron production amounted to 99.3 million mt, increasing by 13.6 percent compared to February and rising by 0.7 percent compared to the same month of 2015, 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 January-March period of this year, world pig iron production totaled 279.86 million mt, down 2.9 percent compared to the same period last year.
In March, pig iron output in Asia amounted to 77.19 million mt, up 0.9 percent, with 60.2 million mt produced by China, up 2.2 percent, 6.74 million mt produced by Japan, down 5.6 percent, and 5.2 million mt produced by India, growing by 1.7 percent - with all comparisons on year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, in the same month, EU countries produced 7.93 million mt of pig iron, down 5.8 percent, while the CIS produced 6.94 million mt, up 10.7 percent, both on year-on-year basis.