Turkish flats imports continue to decline in May

Turkey’s imports of hot rolled flat steel rebounded again in May on-month, but they were considerably down on-year, Kallanish notes from data published by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).

May arrivals of flat products under HS code 7208 totalled 234,220 tonnes, 26.1% up on April, but down -30% on-year. January-May import volumes totalled 1.44 million tonnes, -16.3% down on-year, with the pace of decrease deepening by -3.3 percentage points on April. 

Imports of HR flat products under 3mm thickness (HS code 720839) rebounded in May to 96,948t, 20.5% up on April, but they were still -29.5% down on-year. Ukrainian-origin shipments prevailed in May at 41,732t, 147% up on April and 42.2% up on-year. Russian shipments remained low at 30,669t, 18.7% up on-month but -56.6% down on-year. The Netherlands sent the third largest volume at 8,272t, compared to almost nothing in April and five times the May 2019 volume.

Arrivals of HR unpickled wide strip of 3-4.75mm thickness under HS code 720838 continued to decline, with 27,428t received in May, -17.5% down on-month and -60.1% down on-year. Ukraine again overtook Russia as the largest supplier, shipping 10,257t, as compared to 4,604t in April and 12,346t in May 2019. Russia’s shipments were 5,778t and France’s at 4,173t.

May imports of hot rolled coil/plate with 4.75-10mm thickness (HS code 720837) rebounded on-month, with France again sending the largest volume at 11,453t. Total import volumes came to 23,636t, 29.7% up on-month but -43.3% down on-year. France’s shipments were up 14.9% on-month and 68.9% on-year. Ukraine was the second-largest supplier with 5,250t, and Russia third with 3,924t.