Turkey significantly reduced imports of iron ore from Ukraine in January-April

Turkey significantly reduced its imports of iron ore from Ukraine in January-April 2025, by 74.1% compared to the same period in 2024, to 159,990 tons (618,240 tons a year earlier). This was reported by SteelOrbis with reference to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).

In total, Turkish steelmakers imported 3.08 million tons of iron ore in four months, which is 14.4% less year-on-year, while spending decreased by 33.2% year-on-year, to $329.74 million.

Key suppliers include: Brazil – 2.19 million tons (+14.6% y-o-y), Sweden – 330,710 tons (+100.5% y-o-y), Uzbekistan – 239,260 tons (+48% y-o-y), Russia – 161,710 tons (+3.1% y-o-y). Thus, only Ukrainian supplies experienced a significant decline, which affected the total volume of imports.

In April of this year, Turkey imported 988.85 thsd tonnes of iron ore, up 3.9% m/m, but down 7.5% y/y. The import costs amounted to $101.22 mln (+0.5% m/m, -27.9% y/y). Brazil exported 785.24 thousand tons of ore to Turkey (+74.1% y/y), Sweden – 164.97 thousand tons (-99.9% y/y), Uzbekistan – 61.32 thousand tons (+7.6% y/y), Russia – 65.96 thousand tons (-13.2% y/y), Ukraine – 79.7 thousand tons (-49.2% y/y).

As reported by GMK Center, in 2024, Turkish metallurgical 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.