Pig Iron

Basic, foundry and nodular pig iron by Si, Mn, P and S for melt shops and foundries

Pig iron is blast-furnace hot metal cast into ingots and sold cold, bought as a known chemistry in a market where scrap alone cannot meet residual limits. Basic pig iron for steelmaking (HS 7201.10) runs 3.8–4.5% carbon, silicon ≤ 1.0–1.2%, manganese 0.1–1.0%, phosphorus ≤ 0.05–0.12% and sulphur ≤ 0.02–0.05%; a melt shop buys it to dilute the copper (0.20–0.35%) and tin (0.015–0.030%) that post-consumer scrap brings into the furnace, avoiding hot shortness and edge tearing in drawing-quality flat steel and high-tensile wire rod. The EU bans pig iron from a sanctioned origin under Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 as amended, so European melt shops that used that supply merchant pig iron now buy from other origins.

CBIL brokers non-sanctioned origins. First, northern Brazil (the Carajás corridor in Maranhão and Pará), where merchant producers smelt Carajás ore with charcoal made from cultivated eucalyptus and ship basic pig iron out of São Luís (Itaqui / Ponta da Madeira). Charcoal-based pig iron carries a much lower fossil-carbon footprint than coke-based blast-furnace iron, which matters to EU buyers under CBAM (Regulation (EU) 2023/956); the embedded-emissions figure for each cargo comes from the producer's own installation data. Second, Minas Gerais in southern Brazil, exporting foundry and nodular pig iron via Tubarão and Vitória. Third, integrated steel plants on India's eastern seaboard exporting via Paradip and Vizag. Fourth, Ukrainian production from non-occupied territory, shipped via the Danube ports and Constanța. Origin is documented with the mill test certificate (EN 10204 3.1), the load-port export declaration and a chamber certificate of origin. Handysize and Supramax lots are offered on FOB, CFR and CIF terms, and the chartering desk checks tank-top load limits because pig iron stows heavy.

Medium- and high-phosphorus foundry pig iron is a separate product under HS 7201.20, the heading for non-alloy pig iron with more than 0.5% phosphorus. A typical eastern-India analysis runs P 0.6–0.9%, Si 2.0–2.6%, C 3.5–4.0%, Mn 0.2–0.25% and S below 0.03%. It goes into grey-iron foundry castings where fluidity matters more than toughness, such as manhole covers, pipe fittings and counterweights; into the rodding iron that aluminium smelters pour to fix anodes to their stems; and into phosphoric cast-iron brake blocks for railways. Brake-block iron carries more phosphorus than the typical analysis, so for that use the grade is agreed against the buyer's specification.

See also: High-purity pig iron (HPPI) for ductile iron foundries

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices Chattogram to Vietnam mill scale freight on LaycanDesk.

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.