Turkey: Scrap imports rise 10% in Mar'21 m-o-m

Turkey, the world's largest ferrous scrap importer, saw a rise of 10% in its monthly imports, to 2.2 million tonnes (mn t) in Mar'21 in contrast to 2 mn t in Feb'21, as per data maintained with SteelMint. Finished steel demand supported the bulk scrap demand for Mar'21 shipments.
Turkey’s imported scrap volumes showed a rise of 22% on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis. Meanwhile, Turkish mills' crude steel output was recorded at 3.4 mn t in Mar’21 up 13% month-on-month (m-o-m).

Key reasons behind the increase

• Imports from US drop, volumes rise from Netherlands: The Netherlands stood as the top exporter of scrap to Turkey at 0.34 mn t in Mar'21. Nevertheless, a drop of 26% has been noticed on a m-o-m basis. UK stood second with exports of around 0.31 mn t in Mar'21, a massive seven-fold increase over the previous month.
  Turkey's scrap imports from the US fell from 0.27 mn t in Feb’21 to 0.22 mn t in Mar'21. SteelMint's assessment of US- origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) stood at $418/t CFR basis in Feb’21 vis-a-vis $450/t CFR in Jan'21.
  
  
• Robust demand boosts Turkey's rebar exports: As higher demand from Israel, Hong Kong and Singapore notably supported Turkish mills' rebar exports they reached 0.73 mn t in Mar’21, up 20% y-o-y.
  
  
• Turkey’s auto sales up in Mar’21: Sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in Turkey surged 92.8% year-on-year in March to 96,428 units, as per the Automotive Distributors Association (ADA).
  
  
• Turkish flat steel exports up y-o-y: Turkey exported 0.64 mn t of flat steel products in Mar’21, up by 58% y-o-y from the 0.4 mn t exported in Mar’20, according to the data maintained with SteelMint.