High-Purity Pig Iron (HPPI)

Low-manganese, low-phosphorus base iron for ductile castings, a co-product of titania slag smelting

High-purity pig iron is the cleanest merchant iron sold: carbon 3.7 to 4.7%, silicon from 0.05 to 1.5% by grade, manganese 0.05% or less, phosphorus 0.035% or less and sulphur 0.025% or less, with titanium, chromium, vanadium, lead, arsenic and antimony held to a few thousandths of a per cent. Ductile iron depends on that cleanliness. Magnesium treatment turns the graphite in the casting into spheres, and manganese, phosphorus and the carbide- and pearlite-promoting trace elements undo the effect: they harden the matrix, cut elongation and impact strength and cause scrap castings in thick sections. A foundry making ferritic ductile iron for wind-turbine hubs, steering knuckles or hydraulic housings charges HPPI as a substantial share of the melt to dilute what steel scrap and returns bring in. Most HPPI is a co-product: ilmenite is smelted in electric furnaces to make titania slag for the pigment industry, and the iron tapped beneath the slag is refined and cast. That ties supply to titanium demand, not to steel, and to a handful of plants in Quebec, at Richards Bay and elsewhere in South Africa, and in Norway. Brazilian charcoal-based producers in Minas Gerais make a nodular grade from high-quality ore that competes at the less demanding end.

HPPI is easily confused with its opposite. High-phosphorus foundry pig iron (HS 7201.20, phosphorus above 0.5%) is a fluidity iron for grey castings and is covered on the pig iron page; an enquiry should state the phosphorus and manganese ceilings and the HS code so that the offer matches the material. CBIL brokers HPPI and nodular pig iron against the producer's analysis certificate (EN 10204 3.1) for each cast, with SGS or Intertek sampling at load where the buyer asks, and with the producing plant named on the certificate of origin. Ingots are small, from about 3 kg piglets upwards, to suit induction-furnace charging, and ship loose in bulk in Handysize parcels, in 1 MT jumbo bags, or in containers for foundries buying a few hundred tonnes; pig iron is a Group C cargo under the IMSBC Code and stows heavy, so tank-top loading is checked. Pig iron is within the scope of the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, in its definitive period since 1 January 2026, and the producer's embedded-emissions data travels with each cargo into the EU. Pricing is by negotiation at a premium over basic pig iron that moves with silicon grade, trace-element limits and parcel size, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.

See also: Pig iron: basic, foundry and high-phosphorus grades · HBI and DRI for electric-arc furnaces

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Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.