In July this year, global pig iron production amounted to 98 million metric tons, increasing by 2.5 percent compared to June and up 4.3 percent on year-on-year basis, 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).

In July, pig iron output in Asia amounted to 76 million mt, up by 6.1 percent, with 60 million mt produced by China, up by 6.6 percent, 7.26 million mt produced by Japan, up by 2.2 percent, and 4.17 million mt produced by India, up by 15 percent - with all comparisons on year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, in July this year EU countries produced 7.6 million mt of pig iron, while the CIS accounted for 6.96 million mt of pig iron output, with a decline of 3.7 percent and a rise of five percent respectively, year on year.

In the meantime, in the first seven months of this year world pig iron production amounted to 684.3 million metric tons, rising by 4.5 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2012.