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 increased 17 percent to $7.02 billion compared to $6 billion in August last year. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $667 million in August, increasing from $495 million recorded in August 2012.
In August this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked sixth among the products with the highest export value, totaling $651.7 million, down by 15.7 percent from July and by 33.5 percent year on year. Motor vehicles and parts was the sector with the highest export value in August with $950.4 million, up 19.5 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, in August exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked seventh among the products with the highest export value, decreased by 10.7 percent month on month and remained unchanged compared to August 2012, amounting to $482.2 million.
In the first eight months of the current year, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $6.9 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $4.04 billion, decreasing by 11.8 percent and up 3.6 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2012.