Turkish ferrous scrap imports increased by 11.4pc in 2021 to 24.99mn t, a rise of 2.56mn t from the previous year driven by a sharp rise in shipments from European Baltic countries, Venezuela and short-sea suppliers, according to official customs data. Imports from deep-sea bulk scrap supplying countries rose by 888,300t in 2021 compared to 2020 however, which meant that imports from short-sea destinations increased far more significantly. The largest increase in Turkish deep-sea imports year on year were from European Baltic countries. US, Russian, Belgian, Swedish and Finnish imports were all down in 2021 compared to 2020. Turkish steelmakers' imports from the four Baltic Sea countries of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland rose by a combined 32.7pc on the year in 2021 to 2.48mn t. Lithuania was the largest contributor to that increase, as four exporters operating in the country dispatched 1.22mn t to Turkish ports in 2021, up from 985,967t in 2020. Venezuela emerged as a major new supplier of ferrous scrap to Turkey in 2021, accounting for 936,150t of imports — a more than fourfold increase of 758,310t from 2020.
The sharp rise in Turkish scrap imports from short-sea suppliers was mainly driven by larger availability from its traditional sources of Ukraine, Libya, Israel and Bulgaria. Combined imports from these four countries rose by 87.7pc to 2.28mn t in 2021. Turkish steelmakers imported 804,665t of Libyan-origin scrap in 2021 compared to 391,546t in 2020. Ukrainian-origin imports surged from 60,091t in 2020 to 494,086t in 2021 as persistently high Turkish import prices offset Ukraine's high ferrous scrap export duty. Imports of Bulgarian scrap increased from 371,123t to 488,832t. Turkey imported 496,651t from Israel in 2021 compared to 394,341t in 2020. There were also sizeable increases of imports from alternative short-sea destinations. A total of 97,575t was imported from Greece in 2021, up from just 5,709t in 2020. Georgian imports also ramped up significantly from 7,908t to 83,856t. Imports of Bosnian scrap almost doubled to 95,520t. Tunisian tonnage more than doubled to 81,692t and Kazakhstan-origin material increased from 4,711t to 40,061t.