According to the customs statistics provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in October this year Turkey's iron ore imports amounted to 728,940 metric tons, falling by 37.4 percent compared to the previous month, following three consecutive months of month-on-month increase. Turkey's iron ore imports was almost stable compared to the same month of 2011 with a slight decrease of 0.3 percent.
Turkey's top iron ore source in October this year was again Brazil which supplied 432,902 mt of iron ore to Turkey, down 36 percent compared to the previous month, and down 14.5 percent compared to October 2011.
In the first 10 months of this year, Turkey imported 6.6 million mt of iron ore, increasing 12 percent compared to the first 10 months of the previous year. The value of iron ore imports in January-October was $994 million, down 3.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
In the period in question, Turkey's iron ore imports from Brazil constituted 61 percent of the country's total iron ore imports with 4 million mt, up 20 percent compared to January-October 2011.