The Turkish Steel Exporters' Association (CIB) has stated that the Turkish steel industry began 2018 with increases in both export volume and value. In January this year, Turkey's steel exports increased by 6.4 percent year on year to 1.6 million mt, while the value of these exports totaled $1.1 billion, up 31.7 percent on year-on-year basis, according to the data released by the Turkish Steel Exporters' Association (CIB).
In January, Turkey's main steel export destination was the EU, which received 618,000 mt of steel products from Turkey. The EU was followed by the Middle East, the Far East and Central and North America, which imported 400,000 mt, 146,000 mt and 141,000 mt of Turkish steel products, respectively. In the given month, the Israel, Italy, Singapore, Romania and the Netherlands recorded the highest year-on-year increases in steel product imports from Turkey.
Meanwhile, in January, Turkey's main exported steel product was rebar with total exports amounting to 559,000 mt. Rebar was followed by hot rolled flat steel exports totaling 211,000 mt, welded pipe exports amounting to 156,000 mt, wire rod exports totaling 134,000 mt and steel section exports reaching 114,000 mt.
“Our steel exports to the EU countries increased in January, while exports to the Middle East countries that have started to build their own industries and have made steel imports difficult in order to support local production and exports to the US, which increased its antidumping cases, decreased. In the given month, Turkey’s steel exports to North American countries declined sharply by 82.2 percent year on year. Last month, we also saw decreases in our steel exports to Ethiopia, Morocco, Egypt and Algeria. Meanwhile, our rebar exports decreased in January in terms of volume. The decreasing exports and the scrapping of the import duty on rebar put significant pressure on Turkish rebar producers,” commented CIB chairman Namık Ekinci.