Turkiye's ferrous scrap imports drop 9% YoY in February

Turkiye's imports of ferrous scrap in February slumped 17.7% from January to reach 1.4 million tonnes, which was also lower by 9.4% compared with the same month last year, according to the latest data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).

Over the first two months, the country's scrap imports rose 2.7% on year to 3.1 million tonnes, supported by a large increase in the January volume, the TUIK data showed.

In February, steelmakers in Türkiye slowed their procurement of feed materials as they reined in production in response to waning steel demand in both domestic and export markets, leading to the rapid decrease in the country's steel scrap imports, Mysteel Global learned.

The drop in scrap supply was observed mainly from European sources, the TUIK data shows. For example, in February Türkiye's steel scrap imports from the Netherlands – the second largest scrap supplier to the country – slumped 32.8% on year to 238,500 tonnes, while the volume imported from Belgium plunged 84.2% on year to 40,004 tonnes.

In contrast, Türkiye imported 377,919 tonnes of steel scrap from its top supplier, the United States, during the same month, with the total being higher by 5.5% on month and by 74.3% on year.

Meanwhile, the steady rise in prices of ferrous scrap in the international market is squeezing the profit margins of steelmakers in Türkiye, which further curbed the country's scrap imports, Mysteel Global noted.

During February, the country's import price of HMS (80:20) scrap materials from Northern Europe averaged $376.5/tonne CIF excluding tax, higher by 0.5% from the average price of the previous month and up 5.6% on year, according to Mysteel's tracking.

Their growing scrap costs have prompted Turkish steel mills to use more substitute feeds in production since the beginning of this year, with the result that the country's imports of steel semis have climbed, Mysteel Global learned.

During January-February, Türkiye imported a total of 724,162 tonnes of billets and blooms, up 24.8% compared with the same period last year, with imports from China surging 71.6% on year to 175,680 tonnes, the TUIK data showed.

Written by Anthea Shi, shihui@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com