The Turkish Steel Exporters' Association (CIB) has stated that Turkish steel exports declined in the third quarter of the current year. Political volatility in major export markets, unfair antidumping and safeguards investigations, the dumped product trade and the ongoing declines in the prices of steel products and raw materials in the international markets continue to hinder Turkish steel exports, as stated by the CIB.
In September this year, Turkey's steel exports increased by five percent year on year to 1.34 million mt, while the value of these exports totaled $762 million, down 30 percent on year-on-year basis, according to the data released by the Turkish Steel Exporters' Association (CIB).
In the first nine months of this year, Turkey's steel exports declined by 8.1 percent to 12.2 million mt, while the value of these exports totaled $7.7 billion, down 23.7 percent, both on year-on-year basis. In the given period, Turkey's main steel export destination was the Middle East, which received 4.33 million mt. The Middle East was followed by the EU, North America and North Africa, which imported 2.1 million mt, 1.9 million mt and 1.5 million mt of Turkish steel products respectively. In the first nine months, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Kuwait and Djibouti recorded the highest increases in steel product imports from Turkey.
“At the Turkish Steel Exporters' Association we are trying hard to stop the negative trend and to revive Turkish steel exports. We are preparing our steel mills for new markets. We plan to visit Iran and Kuwait before the end of this year. We want to make up for our losses as soon as possible, while we aim to end this year with 16 million mt of steel exports,” commented CIB chairman Namık Ekinci.