On June 26, the Turkish Steel Exporters' Association (CIB) released the "World
Scrap Market Review" which was prepared for it by the international management and consulting company A.T. Kearney. According to the CIB, the report once again emphasizes the importance of
scrap usage for the improvement of Turkish steel industry and consequently for the national economy.
As the CIB states, the report reveals that
Turkey's
scrap imports, as an input for steel manufacturing, create the opportunity to produce value-added products and export them to other countries, rather than contributing to
Turkey's current account deficit as some economists claim. However, the importance of recycling and of supplying
scrap from domestic sources is also remarked in the report.
According the report which was prepared using 2012 figures,
Turkey used 32.2 million mt of
scrap to produce 34.3 million mt of finished steel in the given year. Of this consumed
scrap, 22.4 million mt was imported from different external markets at a value of $9.4 billion, while 9.7 million mt of
scrap was supplied from domestic sources. Of the $9.4 billion of imported
scrap, $3.2 billion of
scrap was used in the production of steel products which were exported with a value of $6.5 billion in the year in question. On the other hand, after adding the imported
scrap which was used in the manufacture of metal goods, machinery, automotive and white goods, used
scrap value reached $4.7 billion and exported steel value reached $8.6 billion.
The report indicated that
Turkey's foreign trade deficit in 2012 would have increased by $5.3 billion if the steel industry had imported semi-finished products instead of importing
scrap. Meanwhile, if Turkish manufacturers had only used domestic
scrap rather than imported
scrap, Turkish finished steel output would have decreased significantly from 34.3 million mt to 9.4 million mt. Accordingly, the value of Turkish finished steel exports would have decreased by over $7.6 billion, while employment in the Turkish steel sector would have declined to 14,000 from 35,000.