Turkey's steel imports decreased -6.8% to 16.3 million tonnes in 2017, Kallanish learns from the Turkish Steel Producers' Association (TCUD).

Full-year imports of semi-finished steel dropped -21.5% to 4.8mt, while imports of flat steel rose 4.1% to 9mt, TCUD says in a statement, without giving information for other product imports.

December's steel product imports, however, rose 10.2% on-year to 1.31mt. Semis imports grew 29.3% to 445,000t, longs intake increased 11.8% to 122,000t and flats imports rose 2.7% to 656,000t.

Steel exports in 2017 rose 8.4% to 18.3mt and their total value increased 24.1% to $13.4 billion. Longs exports went down -7.7% to 9.3mt, flats exports surged 39.2% to 4.3mt, pipe exports were up 1.1% to 1.8mt, and semis exports soared 216.5% to 857,800t last year.

In December alone, Turkish steel exports rose 1.4% y-o-y to 1.67mt and their total value grew 26.8% y-o-y to $1.32 billion. Flats exports rose 12.4% to 454,000t, while longs exports decreased -13.2% to 770,000t. Semis exports increased 24.8% to 85,000t.