Turkish steel producers continue maintaining strong positions in their exports to key destinations such as Yemen, Israel and Egypt. While the first two have remained strong partners mainly in the longs segment, Egypt is a solid buyer of flats from Turkey, particularly for hot rolled coil (HRC). In 2023, according to the data provided by the Turkish Steel Exporters’ Association (CIB), longs sales to Yemen have maintained their volumes, while rebar and wire rod supplies to Israel have lost over 30 percent. In Egypt, cooperation for Turkey’s HRC has also declined over this period.
In particular, in January-November 2023, Turkey exported 663,000 mt of rebar to Israel and 200,000 mt of wire rod, which is almost 32 percent and 26 percent lower than the sales during the same period of the previous year. Overall, the total steel exports from Turkey to Israel in the mentioned period of time, including merchant bars, flats and other products, shrunk by 33.4 percent or 554,000 mt. According to several Turkish mills, the increased Israeli cooperation with Russian mills over the year is the main reason for the decline in trade volumes with Turkey. “In longs, there has been a lot of material coming from Abinsk SW at prices much cheaper than Turkish prices due to sanctions. Some buyers have completely switched to this origin,” a source told SteelOrbis.
In the meantime, Yemen has maintained its share in Turkey’s rebar exports with 634,200 mt in the first 11 months this year, versus 661,300 mt in the same period of 2022. The country’s total imports from Turkey, including profiles and various flats, dropped by 8.1 percent to 674,000 mt.
In Egypt, the volume of HRC imports from Turkey decreased by 16 percent in January-November 2023 to 204,000 mt, again partly due to Egypt’s purchases from sanctioned Russian mills. Profiles remain the second most traded item from Turkey to Egypt with a five percent rise in volumes to 109,000 mt. The total volume of steel supplies to Egypt, however, declined by almost 23 percent to 491,000 mt in the first 11 months of the year, the CIB stated.