Import Tarih: 23 January 2017
After rising sharply by 38.1 % in 2015 to 19.06 mt in 2016, Turkey’s total steel import, fell by 8 % to 17.54; while the value of import decreased by 11.5 % to 10.9 billion dollars. Having reached an historic high in 2015 up by 65 % to 7.89 mt Turkey’s semi-finished import declined by 21% to 6.16 mt in 2016, supported by more stable margins between scrap/iron ore prices. Last year, around 18 mt of Turkey’s crude steel production capacity stayed idle and around 6.6 mt semi-finished steel products were supplied through import. With the support of balanced raw materials prices, Turkey’s billet import dropped by 7.7 % while slab import dropped sharper by 46 % in 2016. Flat steel import also continued its upward trend; in 2016 flat steel import increased by 0.7 % to 8.67 mt and flat steel producers’ average capacity utilization ratio was 55 %. Despite Turkey’s net exporter status in long products and idle capacity, the import of long products also increased by 6.8 % to 1.67 mt.
In 2016 imports from CIS, the biggest steel supplier, declined from 7.14 mt to 6.58 mt, down by 7.8 %. Imports from EU, another major supplier, declined by 14.7 % to 5.02 mt, while imports from Far East/South East Asia dropped by 8.6 % to 4.17 mt.
Russia became Turkey’s biggest steel supplier country in 2016 with 4.15 mt export to Turkey. Ukraine and China followed Russia with, 2.35 mt each, while South Korea and Brazil’s steel export to Turkey was 1.9 mt and 1.1 mt respectively. In 2016 64 % of Turkey’s total steel import was originated from Russia, Ukraine, China, South Korea and Brazil. Turkey’s steel import from South Korea increased sharply after the Free Trade Agreement signed in 2013. Steel products import from S. Korea grew from 216.000 tons in 2012 to 1.16 million tons in 2016, up by 450 %. However, Turkey has not been successful in exporting steel to S. Korean market since 2013.