According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in June this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit increased 18.9 percent to $8.57 billion compared to $7.21 billion in June last year. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $728 million in June, decreasing from $660 million recorded in June 2012.
In June this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $816.4 million, decreasing by 13.1 percent from May and down 23.9 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, in June exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked seventh among the products with the highest export value, fell two percent month on month and were up 2.3 percent compared to June 2012, amounting to $519 million.
In the first six months of the current year, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $5.5 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $3.02 billion, decreasing by 7.6 percent and up three percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2012. 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 in first six months with $8.35 billion, up 4.9 percent year on year.