Global pig iron production fell by 4.4% y/y in October

Global pig iron production in October 2025 decreased by 4.4% compared to October 2024, to 111.6 million tons. Compared to the previous month, the figure increased by 1%. This is evidenced by data from the World Steel Association, according to Ukrmetprom.

In October, 100.3 million tons of pig iron were produced by the blast furnace method, which is 4.5% less than in October 2024 and 0.7% more than in September, and 11.4 million tons (-15% y/y; +3.8% m/m) were produced by the direct reduction method. Thus, the overall indicator remains low, especially in blast furnace production, continuing the September trend, while direct reduction output rose to its highest level since May.

In January-October, pig iron output decreased by 1.3% compared to the same period last year, to 1.15 billion tons. Direct reduction produced 106.74 million tons, and blast furnace production produced 1.05 billion tons.

The largest pig iron producing countries for the period are:

• China – 711.37 million tons (-1.8% y/y);
• India – 127.58 million tons (+6.9% y/y);
• Japan – 48.8 million tons (-4% y/y);
• Russia – 48.5 million tons (-1.3% y/y);
• South Korea – 36.17 million tons (-1.9% y/y).

Ukraine ranks 13th among 40 countries producing pig iron – 6.48 million tons in January-October (+8.4% y/y) and 692,100 tons in October (+10.8% y/y; +1.3% m/m).

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2024, global pig iron production decreased by 1.3% compared to 2023, to 1.391 billion tons. Blast furnace production amounted to 1.265 billion tons of pig iron, down 1.6% year-on-year, while direct reduction production amounted to 125.57 million tons (+4.5% year-on-year).

The largest pig iron producing countries in 2024 were China – 851.74 million tons (-2.3% y/y), India – 144.91 million tons (+6.7% y/y), Japan – 61.03 million tons (-3.2% y/y), Russia – 58.99 million tons (-5.4% y/y), and South Korea – 44.11 million tons (-2.4% y/y).