European Union hot-rolled coil (HRC) imports from Turkey rose sharply in June, having declined since the start of the year, as buyers were stocking up before the new safeguard quotas came into effect on 1 July.
Arrivals from Turkey reached 341,282t, up by 229pc on the month and by 92pc on the year. This underpinned an overall 42pc month-on-month and 82pc year-on-year increase in EU imports of HRC in June. But imports over January-May were lower, so imports in the first half of the year were 20pc less than in 2019.
Turkey was not the only country that increased its imports, with arrivals from India up by 168pc on the month and 470pc on the year in June. Again, the increase is likely an anomaly created by the implementation of the revised safeguard measures. Serbian imports rose too, while Japan imported more than 45,000t compared to practically nothing over the rest of the year.
The only major supplier to have reduced its volumes was Russia, with imports almost halving on the month to 127,247t, but still up by 78pc on the year. This was likely because of Eurofer's push to revise Russian steelmaker Severstal's anti-dumping duty.
At the same time, EU HRC exports rose sharply, reaching 401,678t in June — the highest monthly volume since June 2017 and evidence of the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on steel-consuming industries, specifically the automotive sector. Compared to May, the increase was 85pc, and 45pc on the year.
More than half of the volume was exported to Turkey, most of which was from France and the UK, while Egypt took around 45,000t. A more sizeable amount, 41,826t, was exported to China, too, where import demand has soared after the supposed peak of the pandemic. Most of this was exported from the Netherlands.
