Russia has increased the export of pig iron

Russian exports of pig iron throughout 2015, according to preliminary estimates, amounted to about 5 million tons, which is higher than the 4.35 million tons of pig iron exported in 2014.

According to the latest government statistics, published on the basis of updated results, the export of pig iron from the Russian Federation in October last year increased by almost 11 percent, compared with the export in the same month a year earlier. However, exports declined from the previous month.

In October 2015, Russian pig iron exports amounted to 289,445 tons. The total volume of exports increased by 10.7 percent over the previous year, when the export of pig iron from the country amounted to 261,468 tons. At the same time, the volume of exports fell sharply by 48.4 percent compared to the previous month. Russian exports of pig iron in September last year amounted to 561,422 tons.

The largest importer of Russian pig iron during October 2015 was the United States with 141,596 tons. US exports fell 41.18 percent from 240,731 tons in September. At the same time, exports to the United States in October 2015 accounted for almost 49 percent of Russia's total pig iron exports during the month. Italy was the second largest importer of Russian pig iron. Italy's imports rose nearly twenty-fold from 3836 tons in the previous month to 62,091 tons in October. In third place was Germany with 26908 tons of imports. Other key destinations for Russian pig iron exports were Japan (21889 tons), Taiwan (13251 tons) and Belarus (9452 tons).

The aggregate volume of pig iron exports from the country during ten months of 2015 amounted to 4.128 million tons, which is 15.8 percent higher compared to exports of 3.566 million tons in the corresponding ten months of 2014. The main destination for Russian cast iron was the United States. Exports to this country reached 1.939 million tons, which is 43.9 percent of the total pig iron exports during this period. Other key importers during January-October 2015 were Spain (497,041 tons), Italy (457,272 tons), Turkey (286,573 tons) and Taiwan (261,100 tons).