ANKARA: The latest data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) indicates that the country’s scrap steel imports dropped considerably during the month of January this year.
According to TUIK data, the country’s scrap steel imports during the month totaled 1.14 million tons. The imports have declined by 17.1% when compared with the previous year, primarily due to declining steel production by the country. The Turkish scrap steel imports had totaled over 1.38 million tons during January last year. When matched with the previous month, the imports during Jan ’16 dropped sharply by 34.5%. The value of imports amounted to $2.25 billion during the month, sharply down by nearly 48.7% year-on-year and down by 33.2% when compared with the month before.
The key exporter of scrap steel to Turkey during January this year was Russia. The imports from Russia totaled 260,593 tons during the month, accounting for less than one-fourth of the total imports by Turkey during the month. Meantime, the imports from Russia were up significantly by 21% when matched with the previous year. The second largest exporter of scrap steel during the month was the US with 241,710 tons. The imports from the US have increased by over 30% when matched with the previous year. In third place was the Netherlands, whose steel scrap exports to Turkey skyrocketed by over 130% to 182,621 tons.
In accordance with TUIK statistics, the country’s scrap steel imports during the entire year 2015 had totaled 16.25 million tons. The imports declined by 14.8% when compared with the previous year.
