Turkish iron ore imports surged 64% year-on-year to 831,171 tonnes in January despite a -11.4% decline in blast furnace-based crude steel output. The average price of these imports was down to $106/tonne cfr from $144/t, Kallanish learns from the latest Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) data.

Brazil remained the largest iron ore supplier in January, providing 456,288t, a surge of 169% on the year-earlier month. Next came Sweden with 164,511t, level on-year, while third was Ukraine with 95,162t, up 63%.

January saw scrap prices remain stubbornly high as US merchants held back material from the market. This continued the competitive advantage that Turkish BF mills had over their EAF-based counterparts in a low iron ore price environment. Turkish scrap imports that month plunged -30% to 1.375 million tonnes.

The scrap-rebar spread dropped to $171/t in January from $182/t in January 2014, keeping pressure on Turkish EAF mills’ margins, while the iron ore-rebar spread was at $383 versus $430, same basis.

In 2014 Turkish iron ore imports increased 5% to 8.54mt. This was broadly in line with BF-based crude steel output which rose 3.5% last year to 10.28mt.