Turkey’s scrap consumption to rise in 2010 and 2011

Turkey's scrap imports, in which a downtrend was seen beginning from the second half of 2008, due to high scrap inventory levels and weak demand for finished steel products,,started to recover in the summer of 2009 according to Ugur Dalbeler, general manager of Turkish long steel producer Colakoglu Metalurji.
 
In his presentation at the Istanbul conference of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), Mr. Dalbeler said that, despite the capacity increases of Turkish integrated steel plants in recent years, mini-mills will continue to have an important share in Turkey's total steel production. Thus, Turkey's scrap consumption of 21.4 million metric tons in 2009, including 5.8 million metric tons supplied domestically and 15.6 million metric tons of imports, is expected to rise to 25 million metric tons in 2010 (6.8 million mt supplied from domestic sources and 18.2 million mt from imports), and to 27.5 million metric tons in 2011. Dalbeler also added that, in 2009, half of Turkey's scrap imports came from the European Union, while 25 percent came from the US, eight percent from Russia and four percent from Ukraine.
 
Mr. Dalbeler noted that in recent years Turkey has increased its scrap imports from the EU and the US, while a decline in imports from Russia and Ukraine has been witnessed. The reasons for the decline in scrap imports from the CIS, according to Mr. Dalbeler, include decreased scrap collection in the CIS, increases in output capacity of mini-mills and consequently in scrap consumption in the region, and finally the imposition of duty on scrap exports by Russia and Ukraine.