Turkey recorded a rather significant increase in import scrap volumes in the first month of the current year, supported by somewhat livelier steel sales, which naturally influences the country’s production volumes in a positive way.
The January data, provided by the Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD), show a 37 percent increase year on year in scrap imports to 1.7 million mt. Europe (including Baltic region) remained the leading supplier with slightly over 1 million mt of scrap sales to Turkey, with a 32 percent increase year on year. The US came second with 315,000 mt, up by 47.1 percent year on year.
The key reason for stronger scrap imports in January was the improvement in steel sales and, consequently, in Turkey’s steel production. In particular, in January Turkey produced 26 percent more billets than in the same month last year, increasing to 1.915 million mt. In the slab segment, the rise was moderate - up 4.9 percent year on year to 1.099 million mt, the TCUD reports. “Last January was a disaster and quite a few mills stopped the production back then,” a source told SteelOrbis. “But also we can see that in January local steel sales were not quite healthy for sure but at least more active. And also some exports happened,” he added.