World pig iron production declined in December 2015

According to the latest statistics released by the World Steel Association, global pig iron output for December last year fell slightly, down 1.10 percent from the previous month to 89.619 million tonnes. World pig iron production was 90.616 million tonnes in the previous month.

The total pig iron production of the EU-28 countries during December last year was 6.809 million tonnes, slightly lower than the production of 7.173 million tonnes in November 2015. Germany produced 1,885 million tonnes of pig iron, while the UK produced 520,000 tonnes of pig iron.

Russia increased its pig iron production by 3.81 percent to 4.500 million tons in December last year. Ukraine significantly increased its pig iron production, by 5 percent, to 2,100 million tons in December compared to November 2015.

Asian countries accounted for nearly 77 percent of global pig iron production in December 2015. Among them, China accounted for about 60 percent of global pig iron output for the month, which amounted to 53.330 million tonnes of pig iron for the month. India's pig iron production rose to 4.595 million tonnes in December 2015 compared to 4.589 million tonnes in November last year. Pig iron production in Japan fell from 6,648 million tons in November 2015 to 6.671 million tons in December last year. In addition, South Korean output fell sharply from 3.986 million tonnes in November to 3.164 million tonnes in December 2015.

US pig iron production rose marginally to 1.850 million tonnes. A notable increase in production was reported by Brazil during the month. Pig iron production in the country increased from 2.169 million tons in November to 2.276 million tons during December 2015.