Turkey's February 2011 imports - the highest ever monthly figures in over a decade

06-Apr-11

Based on the data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), overall imports to Turkey in February 2011 were the highest ever for the month since 2000, although the monthly total was slightly below the January figure. The country imported 340,000 tons of plastics in February 2011, 190,000 tons of which was for dutiable origins and 150,000 tons for non-dutiable origins. In comparison with February 2010, imports for all products rose while they tracked different directions when compared month over month. The country imported 79,000 tons of homo PP in February 2011, which was slightly below the previous month's figure. The main supply source, Saudi Arabia, unsurprisingly had the largest share of homo PP imports to Turkey with 37,544 tons, which was followed by Greece with 7,426 tons and Egypt with almost 5,000 tons. Total PVC imports were 69,000 tons, almost unchanged month over month. PVC imports were dominated by the USA with nearly 11,000 tons despite the anti-dumping duties on this origin, outpacing even duty-free origins. The closest followers were France with more than 8,000 tons and the UK with 7,818 tons. For LDPE, Iran was the largest exporter in February 2011 with over 7,700 tons in the absence of Saudi Arabian supply sources. Other regular supply sources couldn't even come close to this total, with imports from Middle Eastern and European countries hovering below 2,000 tons. The total LDPE imports in February 2011 were 21,000 tons, mainly stable month over month. Turkey imported more HDPE in February 2011 compared to the previous month. Iran was the largest exporter for HDPE as well with more than 12,000 tons, while it was closely followed by Saudi Arabia from where Turkey imported 11,178 tons of HDPE. As for LLDPE, the total import figure was 27,000 tons, almost 13,300 tons of which came from Saudi Arabia with other regular exporters including Libya, Qatar, Iran and Europe staying below 2,500 tons. In the PS market, where 22,000 tons of material was imported in February 2011, Belgium PS left all other competitors behind, with no other origin even coming close to the 7,956 tons imported from this country. The import total from Belgium doubled the total material supplied by the domestic producer over the month.