According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in March this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit decreased to $7.3 billion from $9.8 billion in March 2011. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $601 million in March, decreasing from $715.5 million recorded in the same month last year.
In March this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $1.02 billion, increasing by 3.7 percent year on year and down 6.1 percent from February. Iron and steel ranked third among the products with the highest export value of the country in March, while motor land vehicles had the highest export value.
Meanwhile, exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked eighth among the products with the highest export value, rose by three percent month on month and were down 0.6 percent compared to March 2011, amounting to $530 million.
In the first quarter of 2012, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $2.9 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $1.5 billion, increasing by 10.6 percent and up nine percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2011.