In the first half of this year, Turkey's total steel billet exports rose by 11.9 percent year on year to over 1.3 million mt, while 65 percent of this total volume (850,813 mt) was destined for Saudi Arabia. The data provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) also shows that in the January-June period of this year Middle East's shining star Saudi Arabia increased its billet imports from Turkey by 161 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year. In the given period, Turkey recorded a revenue of $518.7 million from these exports.
In the meantime, in the first six months of the current year, Saudi Arabia's rebar imports from Turkey increased by about 2.4 times, reaching 345,417 mt, while in June its rebar imports from Turkey amounted to 101,712 mt, compared to 12.214 mt in June 2011.
Although the Saudi Arabian market is fairly quiet amid the hot weather and Ramadan, it is expected to revive again after Ramadan.