According to a statement released by the Turkish Iron and Steel Producers' Association (DCUD), in March this year
Turkey's total iron and steel product exports reached 1.76 million mt, up by six percent year on year. Meanwhile, the revenue generated by these exports totaled $1.47 billion in March, increasing 3.3 percent compared to the same month of 2011.
In March this year, only long steel exports saw a year-on-year increase, of 29 percent, while semi-finished product exports fell 49 percent to 80,000 mt, flat steel exports fell 36 percent to 160,000 mt and steel pipe exports fell 11.6 percent to 159,000 mt, all compared to the same month last year.
Meanwhile in March,
Turkey's steel imports continued their downtrend, amounting to 953,000 mt with a year-on-year decrease of 7.6 percent.
Turkey's steel import value in March was $948 million, down 17.4 percent compared to March 2011.
Turkey's semi-finished steel imports in March saw an increase of 59 percent compared to the same month last year, reaching 272,000 mt. Particularly, steel slab imports amounted to 204,000 mt increasing by 19.4 percent year on year, and billet imports rose to 68,000 mt, compared to the 635 mt recorded in the same month of 2011. The country's flat steel imports in the month in question fell by 21 percent to 516,000 mt, its long steel imports declined to 109,000 mt, down 20 percent, and its steel pipe imports rose 17 percent to 29,000 mt, all year on year.
On the other hand, in the first quarter of the year, the country's total steel product exports reached 5 million metric tons, while the revenue generated by these exports was $4.3 billion, increasing by 10.9 percent and 11.3 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2011. Semi-finished products exports in the first quarter fell 19.9 percent to 465,000 mt and flat steel exports fell to 414,000 mt, down 28.2 percent, while
Turkey's long steel exports in the period in question rose by 28 percent to 3.25 million mt and steel pipe exports grew by 3.4 percent to 441,000 mt, all compared to the first quarter of the last year.
In the January-March period,
Turkey's steel product exports to the EU amounted to 390,000 metric tons, down 38 percent year on year, and steel product exports to the Far East during the period fell to 115,000 metric tons, down 41 percent year on year. Meanwhile, the decrease was balanced with exports to the
US,
North Africa and other regions, leading to an overall 11 percent year-on-year increase in steel product exports.
In the first quarter of the year,
Turkey's total steel product imports amounted to 2.67 million metric tons, while the value of these imports totaled $2.64 billion, decreasing by 4.7 percent and 9.3 percent year on year respectively. The only steel products which saw a year-on-year increase in import volume in the first quarter were semi-finished product imports, rising 22 percent to 721,000 mt. There was a sharp year-on-year increase in slab imports amounting to 142,000 mt, compared to 27,000 mt recorded in the first quarter of 2011. Flat steel imports in the given quarter fell to 1.48 million mt, down 11 percent,
Turkey's long steel imports in the period in question fell by 16 percent to 312,000 mt, while steel pipe imports decreased by 19 percent to 77,000 mt, all compared to the first quarter of last year.