According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in July this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit decreased to $7.89 billion from $9.2 billion in July 2011. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $751.8 million in July, decreasing from $921.9 million recorded in the same month last year.
In July this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $896 million, decreasing by 17 percent from June and down 12.4 percent year on year. Iron and steel ranked fourth among the products of the country with the highest export value in July.
Meanwhile, in July exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked ninth among the products with the highest export value, fell by 5.5 percent month on month and were up 6.4 percent compared to July 2011, amounting to $484 million.
In the first seven months of 2012, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $6.85 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $3.4 billion, increasing by 3.3 percent and up 4.4 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2011.