According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in April this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit decreased to $6.6 billion from $9.1 billion in April 2011. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $857 million in April, increasing from $457 million recorded in the same month last year.
In April this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $930 million, decreasing by 15.1 percent year on year and down 8.8 percent from March. Iron and steel ranked fourth among the products with the highest export value of the country in April, while motor land vehicles were ranked second.
Meanwhile, in April exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked eighth among the products with the highest export value, fell by 8.9 percent month on month and were down 1.5 percent compared to April 2011, amounting to $493 million.
In the first four months of 2012, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $3.8 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $1.95 billion, increasing by 2.8 percent and up six percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2011.