Ferrous scrap consumption in Turkey rose by 8.5pc to 29.09mn mt in 2020 on an annual basis amid higher crude steel output, according to statistical source SteelData.
Turkish crude steel production totaled 35.76mn mt during the period under review, up 6pc from 2019, according to worldsteel. The country was the seventh-largest steelmaker in the world as it managed to raise output by around 2mn mt.
Turkey increased its ferrous scrap imports by 19pc to 22.44mn mt in 2020 from a year ago, while its purchases from the domestic market decreased by 16.3pc to 6.65mn mt during the same period, according to SteelData. Turkish mills imported 19.5pc of scrap from the USA, 14.1pc from the Netherlands, 10.5pc from Russia, and 10.3pc from the UK.
In December 2020, Turkey imported 2.34mn mt of ferrous scrap, up 14.4pc on an annual basis. The Netherlands, which shipped around 402,000mt of the material, was the key supplier during the month.
Strong demand for scrap in Turkey supported higher import from most destinations in 2020, as illustrated in the table below:
Top 10 ferrous scrap suppliers to Turkey (mt)
| 2019 | 2020 | change, pc | |
| USA | 3,837,607 | 4,367,973 | 13.82 |
| Netherlands | 2,598,123 | 3,155,079 | 21.44 |
| Russia | 1,881,218 | 2,350,088 | 24.92 |
| United Kingdom | 2,190,027 | 2,303,510 | 5.18 |
| Belgium | 1,304,098 | 1,721,610 | 32.02 |
| Romania | 851,130 | 1,194,503 | 40.34 |
| Lithuania | 593,378 | 985,967 | 66.16 |
| Denmark | 628,157 | 877,954 | 39.77 |
| France | 720,014 | 656,906 | -8.76 |
| Germany | 929,701 | 535,969 | -42.35 |
| Others | 3,323,406 | 4,285,561 | 0.3 |
| Total | 18,856,859 | 22,435,120 | 18.98 |
Source: SteelData