Turkiye imported 86,000 tons of iron ore from Ukraine in September 2022

In September 2022, Turkish steel enterprises imported 86,100 tons of iron ore from Ukraine, while in September 2021 Ukrainian iron ore was not supplied to Turkiye. This is evidenced by the data of the Turkish Statistical Institute, reports SteelOrbis.

In January-September 2022, Turkiye imported 508.22 thousand tons of Ukrainian iron ore. This is 37.05% less than in January-September 2021. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Turkish steelmakers have imported 352.1 thousand tons of iron ore. In January-February, 156.12 thousand tons of Ukrainian iron ore were shipped to Turkiye.

In general, in January-August 2022, Turkiye reduced iron ore imports by 8.6% compared to the same period in 2021 – to 6.97 million tons. In August, purchases of iron ore increased by 19.3% compared to July and decreased by 30.2% annually – to 801.19 thousand tons.

The main supplier of iron ore to Turkiye is Brazil (43% of the total iron ore imports to Turkiye). In January-September 2022, Turkish steelmakers reduced imports of Brazilian iron ore by 18.2% year-on-year – to 3.31 million tons. In the second place were supplies from South Africa – 16%. In 9 months of 2022, Turkiye imported 1.19 million tons of iron ore from South Africa, which is 2.3 times more than y/y.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in September 2022, Ukraine reduced exports of iron ore by 5.7% compared to August and by 58.6% year-on-year – to 1.36 million tons. In January-September, Ukrainian steelmakers exported 21.4 million tons of iron ore, which is 35.5% less than in ./year

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 has almost doubled its iron ore imports from Ukraine compared to 2020 – up to 1.18 million tons. The share of Ukraine in the total iron ore imports to Turkiye was 11%.