Turkish scrap steel imports drop sharply in Jan-Feb ‘16

ANKARA (Scrap Monster): The Turkish scrap imports have dropped considerably during the initial two-month period of the current year. The country’s scrap imports witnessed 19% decline during the period. This is in accordance with the latest data released by the Turkish statistical Institute (TUIK).

According to data, the Turkish scrap imports during Jan-Feb this year totaled 2.29 million tons. This is significantly lower by 18.5% when compared with the imports during the corresponding two-month period in 2015. The country had imported 2.82 million tons of scrap steel during January to February in 2015. The value of scrap imports by the country during Jan-Feb ’16 dropped marginally by 7% over the previous year to US$449.77 million.

The data for the month of February alone suggests that Turkish scrap steel imports totaled 1.15 million tons. The monthly imports dropped sharply by over 20% when compared with February last year. However, the Feb ’16 imports were up marginally by 0.9% month-on-month. The Turkish scrap steel imports during January this year had totaled 1.14 million tons.

Going by the two-month import statistics, the Turkish scrap steel imports are projected to total 13.75 million tons during the entire year 2016, considerably less when compared with the yearly imports during 2015. In accordance with TUIK statistics, the country’s scrap steel imports during the previous year had totaled 16.25 million tons. The key exporter of scrap steel to Turkey during 2015 was the EU region. The imports from the EU countries totaled 7.94 million tons during the year, accounting for almost 49% of the total imports by Turkey during the year. Meantime, the imports from European region dropped sharply by 23% when matched with the previous year. The second largest exporter of scrap steel during the year was the US with 3.84 million tons. The imports from the US dropped slightly by nearly 3.8% over the previous year.