According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in May this year Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $823.28 million in value, increasing by 49.8 percent year on year and up 11.91 percent over the previous month, while exports of articles of iron or steel rose by 14. 2 percent compared to May 2009 and were down 5.92 percent month on month, amounting to a value of $383.65 million.
Meanwhile, in May Turkey's iron and steel imports totaled $1.71 billion, increasing by 92.1 percent year on year and up 3.86 percent over April, while imports of articles of iron or steel rose by 35.2 percent compared to March 2009 and were up 0.75 percent month on month, reaching $159.95 million.
Thus, in terms of value, in May Turkey was a net importer of iron and steel, and its net imports totaled $882.9 million, compared to net imports of $338.45 million in May 2009.
On the other hand, in the first five months of 2010, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $3.27 billion, while its iron and steel imports amounted to $6.45 billion, increasing by 0.6 percent and up 62.8 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2009.