According to the customs statistics provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), Turkey's slab imports amounted to 184,651 metric tons in March this year, increasing again after two consecutive months of month-on-month decrease, up 12.4 percent compared to the previous month. In addition, the slab imports of the country indicated a strong increase in March this year compared to the 67,892 mt recorded in the same month of 2012. Turkey's slab imports have been maintaining their high-volume trend, exceeding 150,000 mt in each month since since October last year.
In the first quarter of the year, Turkey's slab imports increased slightly compared to the fourth quarter of 2012, to 527,165 mt, hitting a new all-time record, rising strongly compared to the 142,083 mt recorded in the corresponding period of 2012. In the first quarter of 2013, Turkey's steel billet and slab output moved down amid falling demand in the domestic market. On the other hand, high scrap prices in the first quarter of the year led manufacturers to buy steel billet and slab instead of scrap.
Turkey's biggest slab import source in the first quarter of the year was Russia with 260,402 mt, with the import volume from Russia reaching the highest level recorded since the second quarter of 2008, while the UK followed Russia, exporting 183,624 mt of slab to Turkey in January-March this year. The UK, Turkey's top slab import source in 2012, recommenced slab exports to Turkey in the third quarter of 2012, following an absence of slab exports to Turkey since 2001.
Turkey's slab import distribution with respect to source countries in January-March is as follows:
