Turkish steelmakers increased slab imports by 42.2pc in the first 10 months of this year to meet their requirements for flat product output.
Turkey’s slab import reached 1.92mn mt in January-October 2020 compared with 1.35mn mt in the same prior-year timeframe, according to Turkish statistical source SteelData.
Russia was the main supplier, but the country decreased its shipments to Turkey by 10.4pc to 857,000mt during the period under review, while Ukraine increased it more than seven times to 674,000mt. Brazil raised shipments of semis to Turkey by 37.8pc to 212,000mt.
It should be noted that this year Turkey imported 116,000mt of slabs from the UK in the January-October period, while last year there was no supply from this country.
The Netherlands was the fifth-largest slab supplier to Turkey in January-October, but the country reduced its shipments by 70.9pc to 42,000mt.