Turkey reduced imports of Ukrainian billets by 66% in January-May

In January-May 2022, Turkish steel enterprises reduced billet imports from Ukraine by 66.2% compared to the same period in 2021 – to 87.8 thousand tons.

This was reported by Steel Orbis with reference to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).

From March to April, the export of Ukrainian semi-finished products to Turkey stopped due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the blockade of Ukrainian ports by the Russian army. At the same time, in May, the supply of billets resumed, though by small batches. During the month, Ukrainian steelmakers delivered 3,000 tons of billets to Turkey, which is 86.6% less than in the same month of last year.

In general, Turkish steelmakers in January-May reduced billets imports by 47.3% compared to the same period in 2021, to 858.1 thousand tons.

The main supplier of billets to Turkey is Russia. It accounts for 58% of the total supply. For 5 months, Turkish steelmakers consumed 494.5 thousand tons of Russian metal products. This is 45.8% less than a year earlier.

Ukraine holds second place in the supply of billets to Turkey – 11% of the total. In the third place is India – 49.4 thousand tons, or 10% of the total.

Russian steelmakers sell their billets to Turkey at significant discounts due to sanctions, problems with payment and logistics, making the products of other countries uncompetitive. Low prices for semi-finished products collapsed scrap prices in the Turkish market, and rebar prices went down after scrap.

Earlier GMK Center reported, at the end of 2021, Turkey imported from Ukraine 350.1 thousand tons of billets. The annual figure is the same as in 2020. Over the year, Ukrainian billets reached 12% of the total billets imports to Turkey.

Turkey holds seventh place in the world in terms of steel production. According to World Steel, the country in 2021 increased steel production by 13% compared to 2020, to 40.4 million tons.