In September this year, Turkey's slab imports amounted to 139,744 mt, up 13.1 percent month on month, but decreasing by 29.7 percent year on year, according to the data provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). The total value of Turkey's slab imports in the given month was $71.56 million, up 10.1 percent month on month and decreasing by 26.2 percent compared to September 2013. According to the data for September this year, the average price for Turkish slab imports in the given month was $512.07/mt, decreasing $14.2/mt from the average of $526.27/mt recorded in the previous month.
In the January-September period of the current year, Turkey's slab imports decreased by 33.3 percent year on year to 1.07 million mt. Meanwhile, the value of Turkey's slab imports in this period was $561.29 million, down 30.18 percent year on year.
In the first nine months of this year, Turkey imported 627,755 metric tons of slab from the UK, up 24.24 percent year on year. The UK was Turkey's largest slab import source in the period in question, followed by Ukraine, which supplied 226,697 mt, up 0.41 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the same period, Turkey's slab imports from Russia, which was the top slab import source for Turkey last year, decreased by 83.25 percent year on year to 112,375 mt. Also, Brazil entered the list and ranked fourth among Turkey's top slab import sources in the first nine months, supplying 41,033 mt of slab to the country in September.
Turkey's slab import sources in the first nine months of this year are as follows:
| Country | Amount (mt) | |||||
| January-Sepmteber 2014 | January-September 2013 | Y-o-y change(%) | September 2014 | September 2013 | Y-o-y change(%) | |
| UK | 627,755 | 505,291 | 24.24 | 46,170 | 92,195 | -9.11 |
| Ukraine | 226,697 | 225,772 | 0.41 | 9,918 | 34,044 | -10.69 |
| Russia | 112,375 | 671,036 | -83.25 | 40,350 | 72,466 | -4.79 |
| Brazil | 41,033 | 39,305 | 4.4 | 41,033 | - | - |
| Sweden | 31,599 | 91,803 | -65.58 | - | - | - |
| Netherlands | 22,709 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 4,511 | 540 | - | 2,273 | - | - | |
| France | 524 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Germanry | 22 | 83 | - | - | - | - |
| Czech Republic | 21 | - | - | - | - | - |
Turkey's sources of imported slab in the January-September period of the current year can be seen in the graph below:
