According to the customs statistics provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in May this year Turkey's iron ore imports increased as compared to April, marking the second consecutive month of increase on month-on-month basis and hitting the highest level observed in the last eight months, as indicated in the graph below. The country's iron ore imports amounted to 1 million mt in May, up 16 percent compared to April and rising 6.7 percent compared to the same month of 2012. In May, the average price of Turkey's iron ore imports stood at $143/mt, rising slightly compared to the average of $142/mt recorded in the same month of 2012.
In the first five months of 2013, Turkey imported 3.35 million mt of iron ore, increasing 11.1 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2012. In the January-May period this year, Turkey's iron ore imports from Brazil decreased by 28.6 percent on year-on-year basis, amounting to 1.2 million mt, while Ukraine increased its iron ore exports to Turkey in the first five months of the year to 953,523 mt, almost quintuple compared to the first five months of 2012.
Turkey's iron ore import distribution with respect to source countries in the first five months this year is as follows:
