Ukraine’s pig iron exports increased in January-May 2020 amid strong demand for it due to shortage of prime grades of ferrous scrap globally.
Ukraine exported 1.202mn mt of pig iron through the first five months of this year, increasing by 14.8pc compared with the same period in 2019, according to the latest Ukrainian customs data. More than half of the material (53pc) was shipped to the US. Other important destinations for Ukranian pig iron included China (24pc) and Turkey (9pc).
Ukraine exported 242,000mt of pig iron in May 2020. Pig iron production in the country totaled 8.158mn mt in the first five months of the year, declining from 8.721mn mt produced in the same period in 2019, according to the Ukranian metallurgical association Ukrmetprom. The decrease is attributed to measures for containing COVID-19’s spread at Ukrainian mills.
The country moved to 9th from 10th position among the world’s 40 largest pig iron producers, according to worldsteel. The top-five pig iron producers in the world through the first five months of this year were China, which produced 355.986mn mt of the material, followed by India (37.093mn mt), Japan (27.729mn mt), Russia (22.037mn mt), and South Korea (18.042mn mt).