At a press conference held by
Turkey's Steel Exporters' Association (CIB) with the participation of CIB chairman Namık Ekinci, vice chairman Serdar Koçtürk, vice chairman of management board Mustafa Çıkrıkçıoğlu and board member Uğur Dalbeler, the export performance of the Turkish steel sector was evaluated.
According to the data collected by the CIB, in 2011 steel was the sector in
Turkey with the second highest export value, after the motor vehicle sector. The value of steel exports in 2011 totaled $17.12 billion, increasing from $14 billion recorded in 2010, and constituting 12.7 percent of
Turkey's total export value. Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2012 steel was again the sector with the second highest export value in
Turkey, with $4.46 billion, accounting for the 12.8 percent of the country's total export value.
In January-March this year,
Turkey's total steel product exports amounted to 4.93 million metric tons, up 9.85 percent compared to the same period last year. In the first quarter, exports of long steel products, which accounted for 55 percent of
Turkey's total steel exports, rose 26.1 percent compared to the same period of the previous year to 3.2 million mt. In the period in question,
Turkey recorded year-on-year decreases of 12.4 percent and 30.7 percent respectively in billet & bloom exports and in flat steel exports.
In the first quarter of the current year, the
Middle East and Near East Asia constituted
Turkey's largest destination for steel exports, receiving 37.65 percent of the country's total steel exports. In the given period,
Turkey's steel product exports to
North Africa and to
North America, which ranked the second and third respectively, rose by 47 percent and 79.3 percent compared to the corresponding period of last year. On the other hand, in January-March this year Turkish steel exports to the
European Union decreased 44.4 percent year on year.
Turkey was the second biggest steel producer in Europe in 2011 and the eighth biggest steel producer in the world with 34.1 million mt, up 17.2 percent compared to 2010. In the first two months of this year,
Turkey produced 5.9 million mt of steel, increasing 13.4 percent compared to the same period last year. The country ranked first in the world in terms of year-on-year production growth rate in 2011. The same situation is also observed in the first two months of the current year on year-on-year basis.
Turkey's Steel Exporters' Association forecast that Turkish steel production will reach 38.5 million mt in 2012, increasing by 11.4 percent compared to 2011, and that its steel export value in the current year will reach $17.5 billion, rising by 13.6 percent from last year.
CIB president Namık Ekinci added that the association will continue to organize sectoral trade commitee visits, especially to West Africa, South Africa and India, after visits to Chili, Peru and Colombia last year and visits to Pakistan and Bangladesh earlier this year.