Turkiye reduced the import of billets from Ukraine by 43% y/y in January-November

In January-November 2023, Turkish steel companies reduced imports of steel billets from Ukraine by 42.9% compared to the same period in 2022, to 67.14 thousand tons. This is evidenced by data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), SteelOrbis reports.

In November, supplies of Ukrainian billets to Turkish consumers increased by 28.5% y/y – to 9.71 thousand tons.

In total, Turkiye imported 2.87 million tons of steel billets in 11 months, up 27.6% compared to January-November 2022. In November, supplies of these products increased by 117.1% m/m and decreased by 16.6% y/y – to 227.11 thousand tons.

The main suppliers of billets to Turkish steelmakers in January-November were the Russian Federation – 1.31 million tons (-6.7% y/y), Algeria – 518.89 thousand tons (+6.6 times y/y) and Oman – 221.37 thousand tons (+31.8% y/y).

As GMK Center reported earlier, in November 2023, Ukraine reduced the export of semi-finished products by 36.3% compared to the previous month – to 70.15 thsd tonnes. In January-November 2023, the country exported 1.1 mln tonnes of semi-finished products, down 39.5% y/y.

Also, in 2022 Turkiye reduced imports of steel billets by 11.2% compared to 2021 – to 2.52 million tons. Ukraine shipped 117.54 million tons of billets to Turkish steelmakers for the year, which is 66.4% less year-on-year. The main supplier was the Russian Federation – 1.5 million tons (-4.3% y/y).