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 increased 55.1 percent to $10.3 billion compared to $6.6 billion in April last year. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $787 million in April, decreasing from $865 million recorded in April 2012.
In April this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $954 million, decreasing by 11.2 percent from March and up 3.5 percent year on year. Iron and steel ranked third among the products of the country with the highest export value, while motor vehicles and parts was the sector with the highest export value in April with $1.4 billion.
Meanwhile, in April exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked eighth among the products with the highest export value, fell by 8.3 percent month on month and were up 1.3 percent compared to April 2012, amounting to $497 million.
In the first four months of the current year, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $3.8 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $2 billion, decreasing by 1.2 percent and up 1.4 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2012.