According to the customs statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in August this year Turkey's semi-finished steel product imports, including steel billet, bloom and slab, totaled 307,428 metric tons.
In August, Turkey's main semi-finished steel product source was the CIS, with imports of 230,488 metric tons, accounting for 75 percent of total semi-finished product imports. The CIS was followed by Europe with 77,000 metric tons - 25 percent of total semi-finished product imports.
Meanwhile, in January-August period of 2009, Turkey imported 2.73 million metric tons of semi-finished products. Of this amount, 2.5 million mt was imported from the CIS and 228,700 metric tons from Europe.
In the first eight months of the current year, the average import price of semi-finished steel products was $394/mt.