According to the customs statistics provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in the first half of the current year Turkey's billet imports amounted to 1.5 million mt, rising 34 percent year on year, while its slab imports reached 971,328 mt, up strongly compared to the 192,740 mt recorded in the corresponding period of 2012.
Turkey's billet imports amounted to 203,164 mt in June this year, falling 35.7 percent month on month and up 7.5 percent compared to June 2012. Meanwhile, the country's slab imports amounted to 177,239 metric tons in June, indicating an increase on month-on-month basis following two months of decline. Previously, Turkey's slab imports had maintained a high-volume trend in the October 2012-March 2013 period, exceeding 150,000 mt in each month during this period. On the other hand, slab imports to Turkey recorded a significant rise in June compared to 30,400 mt in the same month of 2012.
Turkey's largest billet source in the first half of the year was Ukraine with 824,663 mt, boosted by the February and May volumes which both exceeded 175,000 mt. Russia followed Ukraine with 411,562 mt, also boosted by high volumes recorded in February and May.
Meanwhile, Turkey's biggest slab import source in the first half of the current year was Russia with 400,444 mt, followed by the UK with 321,253 mt, boosted by the volume of 93,028 mt recorded in the month of March and by 91,625 mt in June.
