In October this year, Turkey's slab imports amounted to 226,778 mt, up 62.3 percent month on month and rising by 61.9 percent year on year, according to the data provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). The total value of Turkey's slab imports in the given month was $116.4 million, up 62.6 percent month on month and decreasing by 65.9 percent compared to October 2013. According to the data for October this year, the average price for Turkish slab imports in the given month was $513.6/mt, rising $1.5/mt from the average of $512.07/mt recorded in the previous month.
In the January-October period of the current year, Turkey's slab imports decreased by 25.3 percent year on year to 1.3 million mt. Meanwhile, the value of Turkey's slab imports in this period was $677.7 million, down 22.4 percent year on year.
In the first 10 months of this year, Turkey imported 740,297 metric tons of slab from the UK, up 31.17 percent year on year. The UK was Turkey's largest slab import source in the period in question, followed by Ukraine, which supplied 236,633 mt, down 9.24 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the same period, Turkey's slab imports from Russia, which was the top slab import source for Turkey last year, decreased by 80.71 percent year on year to 133,229 mt. Also, Brazil continued to rank fourth among Turkey's top slab import sources in the first 10 months, supplying 123,154 mt of slab to the country in September.
Turkey's slab import sources in the first ten months of this year are as follows:
| Country | Amount (mt) | |||||
| January-October 2014 | January-October 2013 | Y-o-y change (%) | October 2014 | October 2013 | Y-o-y change (%) | |
| UK | 740,297 | 564,368 | 31.17 | 112,542 | 59,077 | 90.50 |
| Ukraine | 236,633 | 260,726 | -9.24 | 9,936 | 34,954 | -71.57 |
| Russia | 133,229 | 690,719 | -80.71 | 20,854 | 19,717 | 5.77 |
| Brazil | 123,154 | 39,305 | 213.33 | 41,219 | - | - |
| Sweden | 31,599 | 118,093 | -73.24 | - | 26,290 | - |
| Netherlands | 22,709 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Italy | 4,601 | 112 | - | 90 | - | - |
| Romania | 1,234 | - | - | 1,234 | - | - |
| France | 524 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Germany | 22 | 65 | -66.15 | 55 | 6 | 816.67 |
Turkey's sources of imported slab in the January-October period of the current year can be seen in the graph below:
