ANKARA: The recent statistics published by the Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD) indicates that the country’s steel imports from China surged higher significantly during the initial two-month period of the year. The sharp rise in imports was mainly on account of unprecedented jump in semis imports during the period.
According to TCUD, Turkey imported 461,000 tonnes of steel products from China during January to February this year. This is 18.5% higher when compared with the imports during the corresponding two-month period in 2015. The Turkish steel imports from China had totaled 389,000 tonnes during Jan-Feb in 2015.
The imports of semis skyrocketed by 770% during the two-month period to total 260,000 tonnes. On the other hand, steel flat imports from China dropped sharply by 64% to 94,000 tonnes during Jan-Feb ’16. The imports of flats from China had totaled 261,000 tonnes during the similar two-month period in 2015. Meantime, imports of steel pipes were up by 42% over the previous year.
The imports of steel from China witnessed jump of 62% during the month of February alone. The imports during Feb ’16 alone totaled 341,000 tonnes. Meantime, Turkey’s overall steel imports during the first two months of the current year totaled 3.03 million tonnes, rising considerably by nearly 23% over the previous year. The imports during Jan ’16 totaled 1.49 million tonnes, 31.4% higher y-o-y. The Feb ’16 imports too were marginally higher by 4.7% over the previous year to 1.54 million tonnes.
