According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in October this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit decreased to $5.5 billion from $8 billion in October 2011. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $724 million in October, decreasing from $824 million recorded in the same month last year.
In October this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $962 million, increasing by 9.5 percent over September and up 3.3 percent year on year. Iron and steel ranked fourth among the products of the country with the highest export value in October.
Meanwhile, in October exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked eight among the products with the highest export value, fell slightly by 0.2 percent month on month and were down 2.6 percent compared to October 2011, amounting to $513.8 million.
In the first 10 months of 2012, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $9.66 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $4.9 billion, increasing by 3.7 percent and up 3.1 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2011.