According to the statistics of the World Steel Association, the production of blast furnace pig iron in 37 countries and regions in the first three quarters of 2023 was 986.7 million tons, an increase of 1.5%. In 2022, the production of blast furnace pig iron in these 37 countries and regions will account for about 98% of the world’s production.
In the first three quarters of 2023, Asia’s blast furnace pig iron production increased by 2.8% year-on-year to 829.5 million tons. Among them, China’s production increased by 2.8% year-on-year to 675 million tons, India increased by 8.2% year-on-year to 64.046 million tons, Japan decreased by 2.5% year-on-year to 47.537 million tons, and South Korea increased by 4.4% year-on-year to 33.494 million tons.
Eu27 blast furnace pig iron production decreased 10.9% year-on-year to 49.13 million tons. Among them, Germany’s production increased by 0.1% year on year to 18.083 million tons, France decreased by 28.4% year on year to 4.584 million tons, Austria decreased by 7.2% year on year to 4.141 million tons, the Netherlands decreased by 25.1% year on year to 3.143 million tons, Italy decreased by 10.9% year on year to 2.35 million tons. Poland fell 19.0 per cent year on year to 2.025 million tonnes, Spain fell 21.7 per cent year on year to 2.218 million tonnes and the Czech Republic fell 20.3 per cent year on year to 2.164 million tonnes. Production in the rest of Europe fell 8.7% year-on-year to 10.517 million tonnes. Among them, Turkey’s production fell 11.1% year-on-year to 6.148 million tons, and the UK’s production fell 3.7% year-on-year to 3.57 million tons.
Russia, other CIS countries and Ukraine together produced 47.532,000 tons, an increase of 2.0%. Among them, Russia’s production increased 5.8% year-on-year to 4.1078 million tons, Ukraine fell 19.5% year-on-year to 4.394 million tons, and Kazakhstan fell 10.6% year-on-year to 2.06 million tons.
North American production is estimated to be down 3.8% year-on-year to 21.515 million tonnes. South American production fell 4.8% year on year to 21.249 million tons, of which Brazil production fell 5.5% year on year to 19.068 million tons. Iran’s production in the Middle East fell 3.4% year-on-year to 1.835 million tonnes.
For direct reduced iron, the 13 countries counted by the World Steel Association produced 87.744 million tons in the first three quarters, an increase of 6.5% year-on-year. In 2022, these 13 countries will account for about 91% of world production. Among them, the largest direct reduced iron producer India’s production increased by 16.2% to 36.197 million tons; Iran’s production fell by 0.5% year-on-year to 24.217 million tonnes. Russian production decreased by 5.4% to 5.673 million tons. Saudi Arabia’s production rose 1.5% year-on-year to 5.191 million tonnes. Egypt’s production increased 16.7% year-on-year to 5.264 million tons; Mexico production fell 10.9% to 3.835 million tons. Uae production fell 6.7% year-on-year to 2.356 million tonnes. Canadian production was flat at 1.180 million tonnes. Qatar production rose 5.5% to 1.282 million tonnes. Argentina’s production rose 1.6% to 1.08 million tonnes. Libya’s production rose 61.1% to 1.091 million tonnes. Venezuela’s production fell 0.4% year-on-year to 204,000 tonnes; South African production increased significantly by 15.5% to 175,000 tonnes.
