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 foreign trade deficit decreased to $8.58 billion from $10.16 billion in May 2011. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $761 million in May, increasing from $608 million recorded in the same month last year.
In May this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $1.07 billion, increasing by 9.8 percent year on year and up 15.5 percent from April. Iron and steel ranked third among the products with the highest export value of the country in May.
Meanwhile, in May exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked eighth among the products with the highest export value, fell by 3.4 percent month on month and were down 3.1 percent compared to May 2011, amounting to $476 million.
In the first five months of 2012, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $4.8 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $2.4 billion, increasing by 4.1 percent and up four percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2011.