According to the customs statistics provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), Turkey's slab imports reached 153,699 metric tons in October this year, following the 106,138 metric tons recorded in September and hitting the highest level recorded since June 2008. According to the TUIK data, 23,528 mt of slab was imported into Turkey in October 2011.
Turkey's top slab import source in October this year was the UK which supplied 46,473 mt of slab to Turkey, down slightly compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, Turkey's slab imports from Ukraine amounted to 30,000 mt in the month in question, rising 47.3 percent over September and almost quadruple compared to the same month of 2011.
In the first 10 months of this year, Turkey imported 580,483 mt of slab, almost quadruple compared to the first 10 months of the previous year. According to the Turkish Iron and Steel Producers' Association (DCUD), in the period in question Turkey's slab output fell by 9.5 percent to 7.4 million mt, on year-on-year basis, as mills which are capable of producing both slab and billet focused on producing billet in line with the falling prices in the flat steel market.