According to the customs statistics provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), Turkey's slab imports reached 165,210 metric tons in November last year, up 7.5 percent compared to the previous month, hitting the highest monthly level recorded since June 2008. In November, Turkey's slab imports rose on month-on-month basis for the third consecutive month. According to the TUIK data, 23,528 mt of slab had been imported into Turkey in November 2011.
Turkey's top slab import source in November 2012 was the UK which supplied 47,265 mt of slab, up 1.7 percent compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, Turkey's slab imports from Russia amounted to 42,570 mt in the month in question, rising 11.3 percent over October.
In the first 11 months of last year, Turkey imported 745,633 mt of slab, quintuple compared to the first 11 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 9.2 percent year on year to 8.1 million mt, as mills which are capable of producing both slab and billet focused on producing billet amid falling prices in the flat steel market.