According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in August this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit decreased to $5.86 million from $8.4 million in August 2011. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $485.7 million in August, decreasing from $836.8 million recorded in the same month last year.
In August this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $989 million, increasing by 10.4 percent over July and up 16.9 percent year on year. Iron and steel ranked second among the products of the country with the highest export value in August.
Meanwhile, in August exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked eight among the products with the highest export value, rose slightly by 0.2 percent month on month and were down 0.3 percent compared to August 2011, amounting to $485 million.
In the first eight months of 2012, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $7.8 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $3.9 billion, increasing by 4.8 percent and up 3.8 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2011.