China became Turkey's main supplier of cold rolled coils in April

Earlier this year, Turkey's cold rolled coil trade was characterized by extremely strong exports and declining imports, but the situation changed dramatically in April. Imports almost tripled, while overseas shipments fell by nearly a fifth during the reporting period. China has become the main product supplier of Turkish companies, providing more than one-third of the total monthly tonnage.

According to statistics from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUK), imports of cold rolled coils in April increased by 175.9% year-on-year to 97,84 thousand tons. The reason for the significant increase in the index is that the comparison base was low under the influence of the pandemic last year, and the local flat steel market conditions are very favorable. This time, China is the main source of cold rolled products for Turkish customers, providing more than one-third of the monthly tonnage, which is about 33,000 tons. "Demand for Chinese products is high, because customers accept the fact that prices will rise, so it is necessary to find suppliers as soon as possible to replenish inventory," a major Chinese trader told Metal Expert. Russia retained its status as one of the main suppliers and doubled the quantity sold to Turkey to approximately 28,000 tons.

Such a high performance in April largely supported the overall results for the first four months of 2021, which led to a change in positive trends. Turkey's cold rolled coil imports increased by 19% year-on-year to 322.056 million tons. The Commonwealth of Independent States is still the main source of products for Turkish consumers, accounting for 58% of the total, about 186,000 tons. Among these countries, China's shipments have grown the most, with 42,000 tons of cold-rolled products already exported, compared with only 8,000 tons in January-April 2020.

Unlike imports, export trade has slowed down. According to statistics from the Turkish Statistics Agency, Turkey's overseas shipments of cold rolled coils in April decreased by 19.1% year-on-year to 40,017 million tons. Despite the overall decline, the EU is still a key trading partner, contracting about 20,000 tons, accounting for 51% of the total monthly tonnage. Nevertheless, due to the successful export sales of the previous periods, the total number of January-April 2021 is still quite high. According to Metal Expert, during the reporting period, Turkey sold a total of 224,056 tons of the above-mentioned steel products in foreign markets, a year-on-year increase of 86.2%.