According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in 2012 the country's iron and steel exports stood at $11.3 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $6.1 billion, increasing by one percent and up 6.2 percent respectively, both compared to 2011.
In December last year, Turkey's foreign trade deficit decreased to $7.2 billion compared to $8.1 billion in December 2011. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $627.4 million in December, decreasing from $656 million recorded in December 2012.
In December, Turkey's iron and steel exports totaled $869.5 million, increasing by 4.6 percent over November and down 18.9 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 December with $1.4 billion.
Meanwhile, in December exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked seventh among the products with the highest export value, fell by six percent month on month and were up 10.2 percent compared to December 2011, amounting to $574 million.