Pig iron imports to Turkey declined 5.4pc to 1.23mn mt in 2019 amid lower crude steel production.
The decline was led by a fall in pig iron volumes from two of Turkey’s largest suppliers from the CIS region. Turkey’s imports from Ukraine decreased significantly to 227,000mt in 2019, a fall of 33.7pc compared to 2018, according to Turkish statistical source SteelData.
Davis Index learnt that this fall in imports was due to increasing need for the metal for Ukraine’s domestic consumption.
Russia, another key CIS supplier of pig iron to Turkey, shipped 750,000mt last year, down 2pc compared to 2018, according to SteelData.
However, import of pig iron by Turkey increased from all other suppliers in 2019. In particular, shipments from Brazil grew by 13pc to 179,000 mt, while those from Germany increased by 124.3pc to 37,000 mt. Exports from South Africa rose by 82pc to 34,000 mt.