Political and economic developments and antidumping duty investigations initiated against Turkish steel products continue to negatively impact the Turkish steel industry according to Turkey's Steel Exporters' Association (CIB). In August this year, Turkey's total steel product exports amounted to 1.27 million metric tons, falling 11.2 percent month on month and down by 25.2 percent compared to the same month of the previous year, with a total revenue of $953 million, falling 13.4 percent compared to the previous month and down 25.3 percent from August 2012.
The Middle East was again Turkey's largest destination for steel exports in August this year, receiving 591,000 metric tons, followed by EU countries and North Africa with 156,000 mt and 145,000 mt respectively.
According to the CIB announcement, in the first eight months of the current year Turkey's total steel product exports amounted to 12.7 million metric tons, down five percent compared to the same period last year. The revenue generated by these exports in January-August this year totaled $9.5 billion, decreasing by 10 percent year on year.
In the first eight months of the current year, the Middle East was Turkey's largest destination for steel exports, receiving 5.32 million metric tons. In the given period, Turkey's steel product exports to the EU amounted to 1.92 million mt, while North Africa imported 1.36 million mt of steel products from Turkey.
Compared to the same period last year, in the first eight months this year Turkey's exports of rebar, which ranks first among the country's exported steel products in terms of volume, amounted to 5.67 million mt, while Turkey exported 1.3 million mt of steel billet, 1.23 million mt of steel pipe, 1.13 million mt of steel section and 1.07 million mt of hot rolled flat steel.