Italy Mulls Pig Iron Imports From Iran

The significantly reduced availability of pig iron from Ukraine since late February has opened the door to the Italian market for alternative suppliers, India and Iran in particular. Basic pig iron from these two countries was offered to Italy at $360-370 per ton CFR, Metal Bulletin reported. “Both India and Iran are new [pig iron suppliers] to Italy,” one source said, “and the Italians are quite conservative when it comes to purchasing pig iron.” Pig iron is an intermediate product of the iron industry. It is made by smelting iron ore into a transportable ingot of impure high carbon-content iron in a blast furnace as an ingredient for further processing steps.