Global pig iron production declined 3% year on year (YoY) and 3.6% month on month (MoM) to 107.6 million tonnes in November, hitting a new low in at least three years, according to data from the World Steel Association.

In November, global pig iron production using the blast furnace method was 96.3 million tonnes, down 3.9% MoM and 4.5% YoY. Meanwhile, production using the direct reduction method was 11.3 million tonnes, dipping 0.7% MoM while climbing 4.3% YoY.

In the first eleven months of 2025, global pig iron production dropped 1.5% YoY to 1.26 billion tonnes. Of this, direct reduction furnaces produced 118.02 million tonnes, and blast furnaces produced 1.14 billion tonnes.

The countries with the largest pig iron production during the period were China, India, Japan, Russia, and South Korea.

China produced 774.05 million tonnes of pig iron, down 2.3% YoY; India's output stood at 140.8 million tonnes, up 6.7% YoY; Japan produced 53.63 million tonnes, down 4% YoY; Russia's production reached 53.15 million tonnes, down 1.6% YoY; South Korea produced 39.75 million tonnes, ticking up 0.1% YoY.

In addition, Ukraine produced 7.19 tonnes of pig iron in January-November, up 10.2% YoY.