About Pig Iron

Pig iron is an important feedstock in the steel-making process. The traditional shape of the molds used for pig iron ingots was a branching structure formed in sand, with many individual ingots at right angles to a central channel or runner, resembling a litter of piglets being suckled by a sow, hence the name pig iron.

Merchant pig iron is similar to the traditional form of pig iron as it is cold iron, cast into ingots and sold as ferrous feedstock for the steel and metal casting industries.

It is used by electric arc furnace steel producers, to add virgin iron content to their steel products, improving their quality characteristics. Metal foundries also utilize pig iron, including its higher purity form, nodular pig iron, to produce their casted iron products.