Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest has managed to increase pig iron exports by raising its production rate while decreasing production of merchant steel slab, the company said in its operational report for the first quarter of 2018.
In January-March, Metinvest produced 474,000 tonnes of merchant pig iron. Traditionally, the company exports all its pig iron output.That figure was 14% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2017, when production of pig iron was 414,000 tonnes."[In first quarter] hot metal utilization was redistributed, increasing output of merchant pig iron by 60,000 tonnes and decreasing production of merchant slabs by 70,000 tonnes," the company said.Merchant pig iron production volumes thus went up by 229% compared with...