Turkiye imported 77,000 tons of iron ore from Ukraine in October 2022

Turkish steel enterprises imported 77,000 tons of iron ore from Ukraine in October 2022, which is 49.9% less compared to the same month last year. This is evidenced by the data of the Turkish Statistical Institute, reports SteelOrbis.

In January-October 2022, Turkiye imported 585.22 thousand tons of Ukrainian iron ore. This is 39.1% less in an annual basis. In January-February 2022, 156.12 thousand tons of iron ore were shipped from Ukraine to Turkish steelmakers. After the start of the war, in March-October, Ukrainian mining companies exported 429.1 thousand tons of iron ore to Turkiye.

In general, in January-October 2022, Turkiye reduced iron ore imports by 4.5% compared to the same period in 2021 – to 8.7 million tons. In October, purchases of riron ore increased by 50.6% compared to September and by 9,8% annually – up to 1.04 million tons.

The main supplier of iron ore to Turkiye is Brazil (42% of the total volume of iron ore imports to the country). In January-October 2022, Turkish steelmakers reduced the import of Brazilian iron ore by 21.1% year-on-year – to 3.69 million tons. In the second place was deliveries from Sweden – 17%. In the 10 months of 2022, Turkiye imported 1.48 million tons of Swedish iron ore, which is 20.2% more y/y.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in October 2022, Ukraine reduced exports of iron ore by 21.1% compared to September and by 70.9% year-on-year – to 1.07 million tons. In January-October, Ukrainian steelmakers exported 22.44 million tons of iron ore, which is 38.9% less y/y.

The main producers of iron ore in Ukraine are Ingulets, Kryvyi Rih, Poltava, Northern, Central, Southern Minings, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Sukha Balka Mining, and Zaporizhzhia Iron Ore Plant.

Also, in 2021, Turkiye doubled import of iron ore from Ukraine in comparison with 2020 – up to 1.18 million tons. Ukraine’s share in the total volume of imports of iron ore to Turkiye was 11%.