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 decreased to $7.18 billion from $10.26 billion in June 2011. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $661 million in June, decreasing from $853.6 million recorded in the same month last year.
In June this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $1.08 billion, increasing by 18 percent year on year and up 0.65 percent from May. Iron and steel ranked third among the products of the country with the highest export value in June.
Meanwhile, in June exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked eighth among the products with the highest export value, rose by 7.6 percent month on month and were up 5.6 percent compared to June 2011, amounting to $512 million.
In the first six months of 2012, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $5.96 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $2.9 billion, increasing by 6.3 percent and up 4.2 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2011.