Steel prices in Türkiye — what was actually paid in 2024

Türkiye is the rare market that shows up near the top of both columns on this page. It buys slab, hot coil and scrap, and it sells coated sheet, pipe and sections, so its import and export unit values on the same heading often sit within a few dollars of each other. Read the two tables together rather than separately: the difference between them is the country's processing margin.

Computed straight from Türkiye's filings — declared value over declared net mass, one year at a time. How it is done and where it breaks down →

• 12,081,930 tsteel imported (2024)
• 26,868,256 tsteel exported
• Net exporter14,786,326 t surplus

Imports

Exports

What the Türkiye numbers say

• The dearest thing Türkiye buys is welded tube, circular, non-alloy at 1,663 USD per tonne; the cheapest is hot-rolled bar at 621. A ratio of 2.7× between the two is normal for a country that imports raw steel and exports finished steel.
• Hot-rolled coil and plate is 53 % of the tonnage coming in, so the headline import price for Türkiye is mostly the price of that one product.
• Supply on that heading is spread — China covers 34 % of the top five lanes.
• On wire the country pays 1,552 USD and receives 913. A 639 USD difference across the same heading is the processing margin, not a freight anomaly.

Buying and selling into Türkiye

• Türkiye is both a large importer and the region's biggest exporter of flat steel, which is why its import and export unit values on the same heading sit within a few dollars of each other — the country is a processor, buying slab and coil and selling coated and formed product.
• Loading ports for export are Ambarlı and Gemlik on the Marmara and Derince for breakbulk; inland haulage from the Dilovası mill belt to any of the three is under two hours, which is why Turkish FOB quotes rarely carry a meaningful inland component.
• The EU safeguard quota governs how much Turkish flat steel can enter the European Union duty-free in each quarter; when a quota category runs out, a 25 % out-of-quota duty applies and the trade shifts to the following quarter. Buyers in the EU should check the category balance before fixing a delivery month.
• Mill lead time for a rolled-to-order flat product is typically three to five weeks; stock material from a service centre ships in three to five working days.

Main supplying countries

Hot-rolled coil and plate (HS 7208)

Coated sheet (galvanized and painted) (HS 7210)

Cold-rolled sheet (HS 7209)

Wire rod (HS 7213)

Other markets