According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in February this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit increased to $6.96 billion compared to $6 billion in February last year. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $482 million in February, decreasing from $594 million recorded in February 2012.
In February this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $918.6 million, increasing by 8.95 percent from January and down 15.1 percent year on year. Iron and steel ranked third among the products of the country with the highest export value, while motor vehicles and parts was the sector with the highest export value with $1.4 billion in February.
Meanwhile, in February exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked ninth among the products with the highest export value, rose by six percent month on month and were down 4.5 percent compared to February 2012, amounting to $487 million.
In the first two months of the current year, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $1.75 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $946 million, decreasing by 6.4 percent and up 1.3 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2012.