Türkiye increased imports of scrap metal by 17.5% m/m in August 2022

In August 2022, Turkish steel companies increased the import of scrap metal by 17.5% compared to the previous month of 2022 – up to 1.61 million tons. SteelOrbis reports about it with the reference to the data of the Turkish Steel Producers’ Assosiation (TCUD).

The import of scrap to Türkiye in August 2022 decreased by 19.8% compared to the same month of 2021. For January-August 2022, the volume of scrap metal imports decreased by 10.3% compared to the same period in 2021 – to 15.49 million tons.

The European Union became the main supplier of scrap to Türkiye in 8 months of 2022. During this period, Turkish steelmakers bought 7.88 million tons of scrap from the EU, which is 15.2% less than in January-August 2021. The USA is in the second place with 2.89 million tons (+29.8%). The CIS countries and Ukraine exported a total of 860,000 tons of scrap to Türkiye in January-August 2022, which is 57.4% lower than last year.

As of September 26, prices for HMS 1/2 scrap on the Turkish market increased by $10 compared to the previous week – up to $365/t. After a downward trend at the beginning of September, scrap metal prices in Turkiye recovered.

The decrease in scrap imports into the country is associated with the low workload of local steel mills. In mid-August, Turkish steel mills were considering stoppages of production due to low demand and high costs. Such plants cannot ensure an increase in prices neither on the domestic nor on the export markets. As a result, the steel production becomes unprofitable.

Türkiye, since September, have increased prices on electricity and gas for industry by 50%, which will further worsen the situation for local steelmakers.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2021, Türkiye increased imports of scrap metal by 11.5% compared to 2020 – up to 25.1 million tons. CIS countries exported 2.65 million tons of scrap to Turkish steelmakers in 2021, which is 9.7% more than the previous year.

Türkiye is the seventh largest steel producer in the world. In 2021, Turkish steel plants increased steel production by 12.7% compared to 2020, to 40 million tons. This is a record result.