At the 7th SteelOrbis Turkish Steel Market Conference held in Istanbul on November 16, Turkey's Steel Exporters' Association (CIB) foreign markets coordinator Kerim Dilber stated that in 2012 the increase in Turkey's steel exports was higher than the increase in Turkish domestic steel production.
Mr. Dilber said that the flat steel product group was the only steel product group in Turkey which registered a decrease in exports in 2012. He pointed out that the 900,000 mt decrease in Turkey's flat steel exports during the first 10 months of the current year was mainly due to the slowdown in the European markets because of the economic crisis. He also underscored that Italy, Germany, Russia, the US and China, which account for 40 percent of Turkish flat steel exports, are the markets which are negatively affecting Turkey's flat steel exports. Dilber added that the CIB is closely monitoring countries such as Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Malaysia which are importers of flat steel, but which do not import from Turkey.
Commenting on the impact of the Arab Spring on Turkey's exports, Mr. Dilber said that exports to Syria and Morocco have been negatively affected, though 380,000 mt of exports to Libya made up for the loss from exports to Syria.
The CIS official underlined that, following the CIB's visits to a total of nine countries, Turkey's steel exports to these countries increased by 75 percent, adding that the most important task of Turkish exporters in 2013 will be diversification of their export markets.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, CIB's trade visits last year and in the current year to Kenya, Tanzania, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Ghana resulted in almost 4,000 bilateral business meetings.