Exclusive Turkey more than doubled its imports of pig iron from Russia in January-October

Russian pig iron accounts for over 77% of Turkey's import market

In January-October 2025, Turkish steel companies imported 1.446 million tons of pig iron from Russia, which is more than twice the volume of imports for the same period in 2024 (693,240 tons) and 510 thousand tons more than the total imports from this direction last year. This is evidenced by data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), published by SteelOrbis.

In 2024, Russian pig iron supplies to the Turkish market amounted to 936,530 tons, compared to 945,230 tons in 2023. This year, product deliveries soared to record levels, and the market share for Russian suppliers reached over 77%, up from 65.8% in 2024.

In total, Turkey imported 1.86 million tons of pig iron in the first 10 months of 2025, up 73.4% year-on-year, while the value of products supplied increased by 46.3% year-on-year to $671.6 million. A small share of the market is occupied by: Kazakhstan – 133.8 thousand tons (-14.7% y/y), Ukraine – 75.39 thousand tons (+4.1% y-o-y), Germany – 55.99 thousand tons (+125.5% y-o-y), and India – 55 thousand tons (+56.2% y-o-y).

In October of this year, imports of pig iron to Turkish consumers amounted to 189.87 thousand tons, which is 3.8% more than in September and 94.6% more than in October last year. Imports from Russia reached 150.13 thousand tons (+132% y-o-y), Kazakhstan – 2.25 thousand tons (-93.1% y-o-y), Ukraine – 31.23 thousand tons (0 thousand tons in October 2024). In October, Brazil delivered its first shipment of 6.26 thousand tons in 2025.

Thus, the growth in imports of Russian pig iron creates a significant raw material advantage for Turkish steelmakers. Cheaper raw materials allow them to reduce the cost of steel production, partially replace scrap, and maintain production in conditions of weak demand, increasing the price competitiveness of finished products.

At the same time, this creates the conditions for Russian raw materials to indirectly enter the markets of the EU, Ukraine, and other countries that have refused to import Russian pig iron and semi-finished products or have introduced various types of restrictions. Turkish steel products made using such pig iron can be offered at lower prices, effectively replacing direct supplies from Russia in processed form.

As a reminder, in January-October 2025, Turkish steelmakers increased steel exports by 12.6% compared to the same period in 2024, to 12.54 million tons. Export revenues grew to $8.49 billion (+4.1% y/y). The main driver of the positive dynamics was the finished products segment. Deliveries of long and flat products increased by 10.9% y/y and 11% y/y, respectively, to 6.57 million tons and 5.48 million tons. Exports of semi-finished products amounted to almost 498,000 tons.