Turkey increased steel exports by 23% y/y in January

Steel imports increased by 24.9% year-on-year in the period under review

Turkey increased steel exports by 23.1% year-on-year – to 1.12 million tons in January. This is according to the Turkish Steel Producers Association (TCUD), SteelOrbis reports.

Exports of flat products in the period amounted to 374.4 thousand tons (+6.6% y/y), long products – 686.4 thousand tons (+25.3% y/y), and semi-finished products – 61 thousand tons.

In the first month of the year, steel imports to Turkey increased by 24.9% compared to January 2024 to 1.73 million tons. Imports of flat and long products amounted to 900.7 thousand tons (+22.4% y/y) and 98.4 thousand tons (-0.4 y/y) this month. Supplies of semi-finished products from abroad increased by 32.9% year-on-year – to 729.8 thousand tons.

In January 2025, consumption of rolled products in Turkey increased by 2.6% year-on-year to 3.6 million tons.

In January 2025, Turkish steelmakers increased steel production by 7.5% m/m to 3.2 million tons. The figure fell by 1.4% compared to January 2024. Pig iron production in the country increased by 2.1% m/m – to 763 thousand tons in the period under review.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2024, the country increased steel exports by 27.6% y/y – to 13.4 million tons. Last year, steel imports amounted to 17.4 million tons (+1.7% yy). According to TCUD Secretary General Weisel Yayan, the high growth rate of imports from countries such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, which has a free trade agreement with Turkey, had a negative impact on foreign trade in steel products.