Turkey imported 9.68 thousand tons of steel billets from Ukraine in February

Turkey imported 9.68 thousand tons of steel billets from Ukraine in February 2024. This is reported by Steel Orbis with reference to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).

In January-February 2024, the country imported a total of 30.68 thousand tons of Ukrainian billets. In January 2023, Turkish steelmakers did not import the relevant products, and in February last year, only small volumes came from Ukraine (54 tons were shipped).

The total volume of steel billets imported to Turkey in February this year amounted to 221.35 thousand tons, up 15.3% m/m. On an annualized basis, it decreased by 11.2%. At the same time, the value of imports amounted to $129.8 mln, up 19.2% compared to January 2024, and down 9.3% year-on-year.

In January-February, Turkish steelmakers reduced imports of billets by 28.9% y/y – to 413.27 thousand tons, while the value of these imports decreased by 27% y/y – to $238.68 million.

The main suppliers of these products to Turkey in January-February of this year were the Russian Federation (100 thsd tonnes, -52.5% y/y), Indonesia (59.73 thsd tonnes, no billets were imported from this country in January-February 2023) and Saudi Arabia (51.49 thsd tonnes, +1000%).

The Russian Federation accounted for 24% of total imports in the period, Indonesia – 14%, Saudi Arabia – 12%. Ukraine’s share amounted to 7%.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, Turkey increased its imports of billets by 22% compared to 2022, to 3.07 million tons. The value of imports increased by 6.8% y/y – to $1.8 billion.