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, and it is bought as a known chemistry in a market where scrap is not. Basic pig iron for steelmaking (HS 7201.10) runs 3.5–4.5% carbon, silicon ≤ 1.0–1.2%, manganese 0.1–1.0%, phosphorus ≤ 0.10–0.12% and sulphur ≤ 0.04–0.05%; a melt shop buys it to dilute the copper, tin, chromium and nickel that scrap brings in, and pays for it by the point of residual it removes from the finished steel. Foundry pig iron carries more silicon (1.5–3.5%) so grey-iron castings graphitise, and is bought on manganese and phosphorus bands matched to the casting grade; nodular (ductile-iron base) pig iron is the strictest of the three — low manganese (≤ 0.10%), low phosphorus (≤ 0.05%), low sulphur (≤ 0.02%) and low trace elements — because the magnesium treatment that makes the graphite spheroidal is spoiled by them. Ingots are 5–10 kg, sometimes cast in strands broken to size; a foundry buying for a cupola wants a piece size the charge door takes. Nickel pig iron, a 4–15% Ni product from Indonesian laterite smelters made for stainless steel, is a different product with a different buyer and often clears under the same HS heading, which shows in the trade data. UN Comtrade 2025 export declarations under HS 7201 put India at 0.60 million MT at an average USD 373/MT, Indonesia at 0.19 million MT at USD 1,078/MT — a value that says nickel pig iron rather than basic pig iron — Malaysia at 0.03 million MT at USD 350, Australia at 0.03 million MT at USD 326, the USA at 0.02 million MT at USD 263 and Saudi Arabia at 7,250 MT at USD 386, out of 10 declaring origins; Brazil, the largest seaborne merchant pig iron exporter, had not filed 2025 declarations at the time of writing, and Ukrainian tonnage moves through Black Sea and Danube ports on a schedule the war sets.

The buyer is a melt shop that has found the limit of what scrap alone can make: an electric-arc furnace rolling low-residual billet or wire rod, an induction furnace that cannot refine and so must buy its chemistry in the charge, or a foundry that needs a consistent base iron for ductile castings. That buyer prices pig iron against the scrap it replaces plus the residual it avoids, which is why merchant pig iron tracks HMS and busheling with a premium that widens when residual-sensitive products are in demand. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers basic, foundry and nodular pig iron from Indian, Brazilian, Ukrainian, Malaysian and Gulf producers and trader positions to electric-arc and induction melt shops and foundries against producer analysis and SGS or Intertek verification of carbon, silicon, manganese, phosphorus and sulphur and of piece size, with trace-element analysis written in for nodular grades. Parcels are structured in Handysize and Supramax bulk lots on FOB and CFR terms, loaded loose and trimmed; pig iron is a high-density cargo and stows low, so the vessel's tank-top strength and stowage plan are checked before fixing. Because CBIL also runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk), the freight leg is quoted alongside the cargo. Send your silicon, manganese, phosphorus and sulphur bands, the residual limit on your finished product and your monthly draw, and we will work the producer to it.

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices bulk ore and metallics freight on LaycanDesk.