According to the customs statistics provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in May this year Turkey's iron ore imports amounted to 950,524 metric tons, quadruple compared to the previous month and up 70.7 percent compared to the same month of 2011.
Turkey's top iron ore source in May this year was Brazil which supplied 504,733 mt of iron ore to Turkey, compared to 373,118 mt recorded in the same month of 2011. Meanwhile, Canada was the second biggest iron ore import source for Turkey in May, supplying 222,340 mt.
In the first five months of this year, Turkey imported 3 million mt of iron ore, increasing 21.2 percent compared to the first five months of the previous year. The average import price of iron ore in January-May was $157/mt, down $5/mt compared to the same period last year, according to the TUIK data.