According to the customs statistics provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in April this year Turkey's iron ore imports increased as compared to March, maintaining the up-and-down trend on month-on-month basis observed in the last eight months, as indicated in the graph below. The country's iron ore imports amounted to 874,724 mt in April, up 75.2 percent compared to March, and almost quadruple compared to the same month of 2012. In April, the average price of Turkey's iron ore imports stood at $150/mt, falling compared to the average of $174/mt recorded in the same month of 2012.
In the first four months of 2013, Turkey imported 2.3 million mt of iron ore, increasing 13.2 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2012. In the January-April period this year, Turkey's iron ore imports from Brazil decreased by 25 percent on year-on-year basis, amounting to 915,825 mt, while Ukraine increased its iron ore exports to Turkey in the first four months of the year to 649,491 mt, more than quadruple compared to the first four months of 2012.
Turkey's iron ore import distribution with respect to source countries in the first four months this year is as follows:
