Turkish semi-finished product exports, the vast majority of which were billet, fell 14% on-year in February to 90,246 tonnes, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) data monitored by Kallanish. They were however up on 76,827t in January.

HS code 720711 billet comprised 89,767t, with Morocco, Guatemala and Peru taking in 28,521t, 25,000t and 21,856t respectively. In the case of Morocco, this was down from over 71,000t a year earlier, while Peru sourced over 30,000t of HS code 720720 billet last year. However, Guatemala sourced zero last year. Moreover, Italy took in over 14,000t in February versus virtually zero a year earlier.

The average price of HS code 720711 billet exports in February was $442/tonne versus $411/t in February 2020 and $426/t in January.

Semis exports in January-February were nevertheless still up 2% on-year to 167,073t, with Morocco, Guatemala and Tunisia the top three markets in that order.