Brazilian pig iron production ended 2018 almost flat year-on-year, according to data issued by the local steelmakers’ association Instituto Aço Brasil (IAB) and monitored by Kallanish.

In 2018 pig iron output totalled 28.41 million tonnes, only 0.3% more compared to 2017. During December alone, pig iron production reached 2.42mt. This volume was up 0.6% y-o-y and 4.7% higher than the volume of 2.31mt produced in November, IAB says.

Pig iron exports totalled 1.91 million tonnes during 2018, -16.2% down y-o-y. Brazil saw its pig iron shipments abroad however increase for the first time for four months in December. These reached 265,150t and were 80.9% higher y-o-y and 119% more compared with November. This was the largest volume of pig iron exported from Brazil since December 2015, the data show.

Brazilian export pig iron prices are at $320-325/tonne fob Brazil, according to the Kallanish price index.