London — Turkish ferrous scrap imports rose 15.8% year on year to 10.77 million mt in the first six months of 2018 as a result of an increase in electric arc furnace crude steel production in the country, data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) show.
The increase in imports was largely made up of US- and Russian-origin material. America and Russia are Turkey's two biggest ferrous scrap suppliers.
Scrap imports from the US rose 33% year on year to around 1.98 million mt in the first half of the year, the data show.
Imports from Russia totaled 1.33 million mt, a 60% year-on-year increase, with shipments supported by the depreciation of the ruble since April.
Some 1.2 million mt was shipped from the Netherlands to Turkey, down 6.94% year on year, and 1.12 million mt from Belgium, down 7.46% year on year, in the six months that ended June 30, the data show.
In June, Turkey imported 1.8 million mt of ferrous scrap, up 10.9% compared with May and 41.5% year on year, as the US and Russia were again the backbone of this increase.
June imports from the US rose 30.4% compared with May and 127.76% to 304,058 mt, while Russian imports totaled 299,165 mt, up 29% month on month and 66.09% year on year, the data show.
The month-on-month increase is largely due to relatively weak Turkish scrap buying interest in May, which was due to uncertainty over the Turkish economy and upcoming elections, with activity increasing after the election outcome was confirmed.
According to deals reported to S&P Global Platts, around 1.25 million mt of deepsea-transported scrap was imported by Turkey in June.
