Turkey has witnessed a drop of 5% in annual coal imports registered during CY19, following a hefty decline in intake from the US. Data provided by Turkish customs indicate that the country had imported 41.86 MnT coal in CY19 as against 44.2 MnT in CY18.
An additional custom duty imposed on coal bought from the US had reduced its appetite amongst the Turkish buyers.
Earlier, Turkey had imposed a 5% import duty on coking coal imports from the US in Jun’18 in response to the tariffs introduced by the US on steel imports. The country had further raised the import duty to 10% for coking coal and 13.7% for thermal coal in Aug’18, in retaliation to the US doubling of import tariffs on Turkish steel.
Although, Turkey had cut its customs duty on imports of US coking coal to 5% in May’19, however, it had still significantly increased the cost of imports which pulled down the import volumes consequently.
A grade-wise break-up indicate that Turkish coking coal imports were down 4% Y-o-Y to 5.61 MnT in CY19 compared with 5.82 MnT in CY18.
Imports of non-coking coal increased 1% Y-o-Y to 31.79 MnT in CY19, which was the sole rise seen among the various coal commodities.
| Grade | CY19 | CY18 | % Change |
| Non Coking Coal | 31.73 | 31.49 | 1% |
| Coking Coal | 5.61 | 5.82 | -4% |
| Pet Coke | 3.07 | 5.06 | -39% |
| Anthracite | 0.8 | 1.01 | -21% |
| Met Coke | 0.65 | 0.82 | -21% |
| Total | 41.86 | 44.2 | -5% |
Source: Turkish Customs | Quantity in MnT
Major Coal Exporters:
Turkey’s coal intake from its chief supplier-Colombia decreased 3% Y-o-Y to 18.42 MnT in CY19 compared with 19.08 MnT in CY18. Whereas, coal receipt from second-largest exporter-Russia, increased 9% Y-o-Y to 13.83 MnT in CY19.
US coal exports to Turkey reduced to half during the year marked at 3.37 MnT in CY19 as against 6.76 MnT in CY18. Turkish coal buyers had turned towards the Australian market to cater the residual volume, bringing in 2.9 MnT coal during CY19 at an impressive growth of 41% Y-o-Y.
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