Turkish iron ore imports surged higher in March

ANKARA (Scrap Monster): The latest data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) suggests that the country’s iron ore imports surged higher during the month of March this year.

The imports during the month totaled 828,000 tonnes, surging 55.9% when compared with the imports during the same month a year ago. TUIK noted that the huge rise in iron ore imports are despite a sharp decline in blast furnace-based crude steel output during the month.

The monthly average import price dropped sharply from $146.7 per tonne a year before to $95.1 per tonne during Mar ’15.

The largest supplier of iron ore to Turkey during March this year was Brazil. The imports from Brazil totaled 429,000 tonnes, accounting for nearly 52% of the total imports by the country during the month. The iron ore imports from Brazil witnessed sharp surge of 152% over the previous year. The iron ore supplies from Brazil had totaled 169,955 tonnes in March 2014.

In second place was Sweden with 165,000 tonnes. The imports from that country remained more or less flat year-on-year. Sweden had shipped nearly 166,000 tonnes of iron ore to Turkey during March last year.

The cumulative iron ore imports by Turkey during th e initial three-month period in 2015 totaled 2.52 million tonnes, up by nearly 29.7% when compared with the imports of 1.95 million tonnes during the corresponding quarter last year.