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 1.1 percent to $7.38 billion compared to $7.47 billion in March last year. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $483 million in March, decreasing from $612 million recorded in March 2012.
In March this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $1.1 billion, increasing by 17 percent over February and up 6.1 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 March with $1.5 billion.
Meanwhile, in March exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked seveth among the products with the highest export value, rose by 11.2 percent month on month and were up 2.8 percent compared to March 2012, amounting to $541.5 million.
In the first quarter of the current year, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $2.8 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $1.5 billion, decreasing by 2.2 percent and up 1.6 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2012.