Author: Paul Ploumis13 May 2015 Last updated at 03:53:46 GMT

ANKARA (Scrap Monster): According to the latest data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), the total scrap imports by Turkey during the month of March this year declined sharply by nearly 6.56% from the previous year. Also, scrap imports during the month were sharply down by 8.58% when compared with Feb ‘15.

The country’s scrap imports during Mar ‘15 totaled 1.32 million metric tons. The value of these imports has dropped by nearly 24% year-on-year to $406.83 million.

The largest scrap exporter to Turkey during March was Russia. The country exported 328,381 metric tons of scrap to Turkey, constituting almost one-fourth of the total Turkish imports during the month. The imports from Russia jumped significantly higher by 71.74% during the month over the previous year. The second largest scrap supplier to Turkey was the US with 290,606 tons, up by 27.66% over the year. In third place was Belgium with 120,767 tons. The scrap imports from Belgium dropped sharply by 36.16% when matched with Mar ‘14.

The other key scrap suppliers to Turkey during Mar ’15 were the Netherlands (119,362 mt), Ukraine (102,387 mt), Romania (50,440 mt) and Denmark (50,177 mt).

The cumulative scrap imports by Turkey during the three-month period from January to March this year totaled 4.14 million mt, down 5.72% when compared the corresponding three-month period in 2014. The largest scrap exporters to Turkey during Jan-Mar ’15 were the US (772,979 tons, down by 13.58% y-o-y), Russia (703,828 tons, up by 13.78%), UK (603,251 tons, up by 29.62%). The total value of imports during the three-month period has dropped by 23.57% to $1.30 billion.