Final Thoughts
July 17, 2026
Final Thoughts
Written by Stephen Miller
Could pig iron production come back to the US? The unpredictable trade environment since the beginning of the new Trump administration has led many to believe pig iron production should be brought back to the US.
On Wednesday, the US Trade Representative (USTR) issued an exemption for Brazilian imported pig iron from the Section 301 proposed tariff of 25%. This is a relief to US steelmakers who rely on Brazil for a large portion of their pig iron needs.
However, as we’ve seen, the trade and tariff situation can change pretty fast. It’s hard to feel stable and secure, especially with a raw material as important as pig iron.
Still, the US imports almost all of its pig iron needs from foreign countries. Brazil and Ukraine account for the lion’s share of pig iron, with India a distant third. Russia was formerly the largest importer but has since been sanctioned following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
No matter which countries the US relies upon, it’s all imported. Geopolitical, trade, and weather issues can all negatively affect the supply chains and price. It is therefore not surprising US-based entrepreneurs are attempting to produce pig iron in North America.
North American Iron Inc. recently noted it secured additional financing in order to advance its project in Minnesota to convert iron ore tailings into merchant pig iron. The financing, which closed last month, will provide capital for engineering, permitting, and project development.
The process will rely on existing stockpiles of iron ore tailings, which have a low ferric oxide content, located in Minnesota. They intend to process this material in some fashion, probably to isolate the Fe containing portion. This material is to be shipped via rail to a facility in Minot, N.D., for conversion into merchant pig iron for use in steel mills and foundries. The yearly production is forecasted to be as much as 2 million tons.
EAF use
The North American market uses pig iron in electric-arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking to reduce the levels in tramp alloys contained in their main melting stock, namely ferrous scrap. Foundries also melt pig iron in their production of iron castings, which are used throughout the continent’s industrial manufacturing base. North America imports roughly 6 million metric tons (mt) per year and demand is expected to grow as more EAF steelmaking comes online. Of this amount, virtually all of it is imported.
Over the last several decades, when demand for pig iron increased by significant levels, there have been several projects designed to make pig iron by unconventional methods. None of these have been successful.
How it’s made
Pig iron is produced in a blast furnace by reducing iron ore into molten iron called “hot metal.” In the US, Mexico, and Canada, integrated steelmakers produce this material, which is converted into steel in the basic oxygen furnace. In order to produce merchant pig iron, the “hot metal” would have to be cast into small ingots in a pig iron caster. Today, most modern integrated facilities have neither the financial motivation nor the equipment to produce merchant pig iron.
Looking back
In the 1990s, several integrated mills did undertake the manufacture of merchant pig iron. These mills included Bethlehem Steel in Sparrows Point, Md.; U.S. Steel in Lorain, Ohio; AK Steel in Ashland, Ky.; and Inland Steel in East Chicago, Ind.
Of these facilities, only the East Chicago location is still operative—and only for minor tonnages. The other US-based merchant pig iron producer is U.S. Steel at their Gary Works in Indiana. This production is generally shipped to their sister mill, Big River Steel in Osceola, Ark. Production is approximately 500,000 tons per year.
In Canada, Cleveland-Cliff’s Stelco operation in Nanticoke, Ontario, has the ability to produce pig iron if the economics vs. hot-rolled (HR) coil production is favorable. Needless to say, with HR prices at their highest level in years, they aren’t casting much pig iron.
Things happening now
North American Iron does have some domestic competition from other projects trying to produce merchant pig iron.
In 2025, Nemo Industries announced plans to build a $3 billion pig iron plant in Louisiana using natural gas to produce direct-reduced iron (DRI) and converting it into merchant pig iron via an EAF.
In Canada, Strategic Resources, based in Montreal, has plans to eventually build a pig iron plant in Saguenay, Quebec, using a similar method, but not using natural gas.
There is also the possibility, in the future, that existing idle blast furnaces in the US could be refitted to cast pig iron. These would rely on coke as the reductant. All these projects are optimistically at least three years away from completion.
