Global pig iron production fell by 2.2% y/y in January-September

China reduced its output by 3% year-on-year over the period

Global pig iron production in January–September 2026 fell by 2.2% year-on-year – to 1.02 billion tonnes. This is evidenced by data from the World Steel Association (worldsteel), as reported by Ukrmetalurgprom.

Blast furnaces produced 929.56 million tonnes in January–September, while the direct reduction method produced 91.15 million tonnes.

The largest pig iron producing countries over the 9 months were:

• China – 628.44 million tonnes (-3% y/y);
• India – 119.22 million tonnes (+3.7%);
• Japan – 43.84 million tonnes (-0.2%);
• Russia – 42.38 million tonnes (-3.6%);
• South Korea – 33.15 million tonnes (+1.6%).

In January–September, Ukraine ranked 15th among 40 pig iron producing countries – 4.46 million tonnes (-22.9% y/y).

As a reminder, in 9 months of 2026, global steel production reached 1.37 billion tonnes, which is 0.7% less than in the same period of 2025. The CIS countries and Ukraine produced 58.2 million tonnes of steel during this period, down 5% y/y. In September alone, the global figure fell by 0.2% y/y.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2025 global pig iron production decreased by 1.7% compared to 2024, to 1.368 billion tonnes. The direct reduction method produced 129.2 million tonnes over the year, while blast furnaces produced 1.239 billion tonnes. The largest pig iron producing countries in 2025 were China – 836.04 million tonnes (-3% y/y), India – 154.43 million tonnes (+6.7% y/y) and Japan – 58.45 million tonnes (-4.2% y/y).