According to the data provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in March this year Turkey's steel scrap imports decreased 7.9 percent compared to the same month of 2012, amounting to 1.55 million metric tons. However, the country's scrap imports rose 21.1 percent compared to the February level which was the lowest monthly volume recorded since July 2010.
According to the data released by TUIK, Turkey's scrap import value was $617.8 million in March, up 21.5 percent compared to February this year and down 18.4 percent year on year. In March this year, the average price of Turkey's steel scrap imports stood at $399/mt, falling approximately $51/mt compared to the average of $450/mt recorded in the same month of 2012.
In the first quarter of the year, Turkey's steel scrap imports amounted to 4.3 million mt, decreasing 18.6 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, with a value of $1.7 billion, down 27.5 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the first quarter of the year the lowest quarterly scrap import volume was registered since the first quarter of 2010. The decrease in the first quarter was mainly due to the strong decrease in the import level from the EU countries which was the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2009.
In the first quarter of the current year, Turkey imported 2.1 million mt of steel scrap from the EU, falling by 31.8 percent compared to the previous quarter and down 30.7 percent year on year, while it imported 1.6 million mt of scrap from North America, rising slightly over the fourth quarter of 2012 and down 16 percent year on year. In addition, Turkey's scrap imports from the CIS also decreased to its lowest level recorded since the second quarter of 2010, amounting to 384,256 mt, falling 36.7 percent from the previous quarter and down 40.8 percent year on year.
Turkey's main scrap sources on country basis in the first quarter of this year are presented in the chart below:
Turkey's top 10 steel scrap import sources in Q1 2013 are as follows:
Country | Volume (mt) | |||
Jan-Mar 2013 | Jan-Mar 2012 | March 2013 | March 2012 | |
US | 1,456,172 | 1,240,577 | 557,181 | 460,776 |
UK | 594,027 | 600,786 | 184,769 | 201,260 |
Romania | 483,056 | 381,885 | 170,884 | 118,491 |
Russia | 330,378 | 437,755 | 151,025 | 95,583 |
Belgium | 225,215 | 280,954 | 66,609 | 58,900 |
Bulgaria | 165,837 | 169,280 | 66,807 | 34,570 |
Canada | 154,335 | 126,841 | 82,862 | 88,241 |
Netherlands | 113,708 | 648,814 | - | 156,824 |
Denmark | 112,750 | 72,361 | 40,810 | - |
Lebanon | 96,076 | 102,973 | 39,077 | 28,841 |
TOTAL | 4,342,783 | 5,337,508 | 1,549,025 | 1,681,308 |