In 2020, coronavirus pandemic has rapidly affected our day to day life, businesses, disrupted the world trade and movements.

Although Turkish steel manufacturers showed quite good production performance in the first quarter, steel production fell sharply in April and May, due to the effect of the coronavirus on the economy. And consequently, graphite electrode consumption was greatly reduced.

According to TUIK data, Turkey imported 18,200 tons of graphite electrodes in the first half of 2020, a year-on-year decrease of 8.2%. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, steel manufacturers are forced to limit production, which naturally leads to a reduction in the purchase of raw materials and consumables. The output of local enterprises in April-June fell by 16.8% year-on-year, and fell to 7.3 million tons in April-June. As a result, the demand for imported graphite electrodes also dropped by 18% to approximately 9,000 tons.

In the first half of the year, European graphite electrodes accounted for the largest share of imports, about 43%, or 7,800 tons, a decrease of 6.8% over the same period last year. Despite the overall unfavorable trend, some suppliers managed to strengthen their position in the Turkish market. China is Turkey's largest supplier. According to TUIK data, China's sales to Turkey increased by 22.3% to 5,900 tons.

Turkish steelmakers received 3,200 tons of graphite electrodes in June 2020, a decrease of 19.6% compared to the same period in 2019. Chinese suppliers supplied one-third of them。