Turkey reduced imports of raw materials from Ukraine by 65% y/y in January-May

In January-May 2025, Turkey significantly reduced its imports of iron ore from Ukraine by 65.4% compared to the same period in 2024, to 240,360 tons (694,140 tons a year earlier). This was reported by SteelOrbis with reference to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).

In total, Turkish metallurgists imported 3.7 million tons of iron ore in five months, which is 17.4% less year-on-year, while spending decreased by 34.6% year-on-year, to $394.79 million.

Key suppliers include Brazil – 2.39 million tons (+6.9% y-o-y), Uzbekistan – 337,110 tons (+42.7% y-o-y), Sweden – 330,710 tons (+0.2% y-o-y), Russia – 224.54 thousand tons (+7% y/y). Thus, only Ukrainian supplies experienced a significant decline, which affected the total volume of imports.

In May of this year, Turkey imported 618.74 thousand tons of iron ore, which is 37.4% less than in April and 29.6% less than in May of last year. Import costs amounted to $65.05 million (-35.7% month-on-month; -40.6% year-on-year). Brazil exported 210 thousand tons of ore to Turkey (-37.2% y-o-y), Uzbekistan – 97.65 thousand tons (+31.3% y-o-y), Russia – 62.82 thousand tons (+18.3% y-o-y), Ukraine – 80.37 thousand tons (+5.9% y-o-y).

As GMK Center reported  earlier, in 2024, Turkish steel companies imported 1.09 million tons of iron ore from Ukraine, compared to 581,560 tons in 2023 (+88.2% y-o-y). Overall, Turkey increased its iron ore imports by 12.6% y-o-y – to 10.01 million tons, with spending on iron ore rising by 8.7% y-o-y – to $1.21 billion.