April expectedly became a hot month for scrap imports to Turkey, first of all owing to strong support from overseas steel buyers. Moreover, it was the tenth consecutive month of robust demand for scrap in the country, supporting the overall positive trend for January-April 2021. The EU traditionally supplied the lion share of both the monthly and aggregated volumes.

Almost 2.5 million t of foreign scrap was delivered to Turkey in April, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). The figure skyrocketed by 44.1% on annualised basis.

Such upturn in raw material bookings is explained by quite successful sales of steel products for the reported period. Mills were hungry to buy scrap as they sold good rebar volumes to Latin America and Asia.

Almost all key suppliers strengthened cooperation with Turkey in April, but the US registered the biggest increase in tonnages. The country sent 548,059 t of scrap to Turkish mills, by a half more than in April 2020.

Despite that, the main part of monthly volumes was delivered from the EU, which sold to Turkey 1.4 million t of scrap, up by 62.7% compared to the same month of 2020.

Such a strong performance during past months greatly supported the overall positive trend in scrap imports in January-April 2021. The raw material deliveries increased by 25.6% year-on-year, hitting almost 8.8 million t, TUIK data shows.

The EU traditionally sold the lion share of the volumes – 56.8% from the total amount, increasing them by 36% to more than 5 million t.

Among countries, the Netherlands kept the position of the key supplier to Turkey, ramping up sales by 20.4% to around 1.3 million t (15.1% from total imports).