Turkish flat steel imports fall 2% in 2012

Turkey’s imports of all types of flat steel totalled 5,047,532 tonnes in 2012, 1.8% less than the 5,139,720 tonnes imported in 2011, according to data recently released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).

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Within that total, the country imported 3,366,809 tonnes of hot rolled flat steel in 2012, down by 1.6% from 3,420,486 tonnes in 2011.

The country’s principal sources for hot rolled flats in 2012 were Ukraine with 812,696 tonnes, Russia with 527,669 tonnes, Romania with 520,812 tonnes, and France with 329,386 tonnes.

Cold rolled steel product imports totalled 638,175 tonnes in 2012, 18% more than 2011’s 541,783 tonnes.

The main sources for these imports were Russia with 268,005 tonnes, Belgium with 94,051 tonnes, Ukraine with 60,581 tonnes, and Romania with 53,767 tonnes.

Turkey also imported 682,989 tonnes of coated products in 2012, TUIK said, a drop of 8.8% from 748,681 tonnes in 2011.

The main suppliers of coated flat steel were Belgium with 131,845 tonnes, South Korea with 93,518 tonnes, Italy with 71,602 tonnes, and the Netherlands with 58,834 tonnes.

Imports of narrow flats below 600mm width in 2012 came to 359,559 tonnes, an increase of 9% over 2011’s 328,770 tonnes.

December 2012
In December 2012 alone, Turkey’s flat steel imports reached 355,777 tonnes, 20% less than the 444,505 tonnes in the previous month.

The country imported 227,518 tonnes of hot rolled flats in December, 17% less than November 2012’s 275,126 tonnes. The main sources were France with 47,603 tonnes, Russia with 44,734 tonnes, Ukraine with 40,318 tonnes, and Slovakia with 27,823 tonnes.

Turkey imported 35,985 tonnes of cold rolled flats in December 2012, 31% less than November 2012’s 52,298 tonnes. The biggest sources were Russia with 18,370 tonnes, Belgium with 8,524 tonnes, and South Korea with 2,548 tonnes.

Coated flat products in December reached 59,571 tonnes, 25% less than November 2012’s 79,645 tonnes. The biggest sources were Belgium with 11,272 tonnes, South Korea with 7,901 tonnes, and France with 7,024 tonnes.

Finally, Turkey imported 32,703 tonnes of narrow strips of less than 600mm width in December, 12.6% less than November’s total of 37,427 tonnes.