Türkiye’s steel industry, around 75% based on electric arc furnaces and with 70% of scrap requirement coming from imports, is increasingly seeking ways to substitute scrap use. This comes amid tightening global restrictions on scrap exports, the impact of CBAM, rising scrap usage worldwide, and persistently high scrap prices squeezing mills’ margins.

In January-November 2025, Turkish crude steel production rose by 2% on-year to 34.6 million tonnes. Despite higher output, Türkiye’s scrap imports declined 6.6% to 17.028mt over the same period.

Facing uncompetitive scrap prices, Turkish mills increasingly turned to alternative inputs throughout the year. These included billet, slab, pig iron and other metallics.

January-November billet imports surged by 22.6% to 3.93mt, with Russia, Malaysia and China dominating supplies at 890,000 tonnes, 817,950t and 817,164t, respectively. Amid unfavourable market conditions in China, Asian-origin billet flooded the Turkish market despite the 22.5% import duty. However, under the Inward Processing Regime (DIR), mills were often able to import billet duty free, prompting Turkish authorities to revise the scheme in September.

The revised DIR shortened the validity period of inward processing certificates and introduced a requirement for companies to source at least 25% of certain imported steel inputs, including billet, wire rod, slab and hot rolled coil, from domestic suppliers. Slab imports, meanwhile, totalled 3.61mt in January-November, unchanged year-on-year, despite the continued application of a 22.5% import duty.

Pig iron imports rose sharply, increasing by 62.5% to 2.13mt, as Russia dominated with shipments of 1.64mt. Turkish mills’ intake of HBI and DRI also climbed, rising by 29.4% to 1.13mt.

Although scrap prices remained firm throughout the year and continued to offer little margin for Turkish steel producers, scrap values failed to reach their 2024 highs amid unfavourable conditions in the global steel market.

Turkish mills’ shift towards substituting scrap with alternative inputs is expected to accelerate with the implementation of CBAM in the EU, which may also lead to tighter restrictions on scrap exports from the region.

Source:Mysteel