According to the statistics provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in the first nine months of the current year Turkey's iron ore imports amounted to 6.16 million mt, increasing by 4.66 percent, with a value of $878.17 million, down 3.42 percent, both year on year.
Meanwhile, in the third quarter of the year Turkey's iron ore imports amounted to 1.98 million mt, down 27.42 percent compared to the previous quarter and decreasing by 17.83 percent compared to the third quarter of 2012.
On the other hand, in September this year Turkey's iron ore imports totaled 556,938 metric tons, decreasing by 11.39 percent compared to previous month and down 52.15 year on year, while the value of these imports amounted to $82.73 million, down 4.44 percent compared to August and declining by 53.58 percent year on year.
In the January-September period this year, Turkey's iron ore imports from Brazil decreased by 42.14 percent year on year to 2.08 million mt, while Ukraine's iron ore exports to Turkey in the given period almost tripled on year-on-year basis to 1.52 million mt.
Turkey's largest iron ore sources in the period in question can be seen in the graph below:
Turkey's iron ore import sources in January-September 2013 are as follows:
| Country | Amount (mt) | |||
| Jan-Sept. 2013 | Jan-Sept. 2012 | Sept.2013 | Sept.2012 | |
| Brazil | 2,081,163 | 3,597,202 | - | 677,830 |
| Ukraine | 1,522,624 | 491,725 | 152,772 | 58,304 |
| Sweden | 1,076,514 | 847,058 | 165,004 | 166,346 |
| Russia | 975,397 | 461,747 | 145,312 | 154,497 |
| Canada | 330,161 | 329,288 | - | 106,948 |
| Finland | 93,850 | - | 93,850 | - |
| USA | 82,258 | 34 | 0 | 33 |
| Germany | 38 | 1 | - | - |
| Bulgaria | 0 | - | - | - |