According to the data provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in August this year Turkey's steel billet and bloom exports amounted to 505,708 metric tons, hitting the highest historical level. The country more than doubled its steel billet and bloom exports compared to 226,464 mt recorded in July and 243,634 mt recorded in the same month of 2011.
The revenue generated by Turkey's steel billet exports in August totaled $298 million, increasing compared to $136.3 million in July this year and $243.6 million in August 2011.
As can be seen in SteelOrbis' Steel Reference Prices, Turkish steel billet export prices had declined for six consecutive weeks until July this year and then entered into an uptrend until mid-August, though with some interrptions.
Turkey's top 10 steel billet export destinations in August 2012:
Country | Quantity (mt) | |
Aug 2012 | Aug 2011 | |
Saudi Arabia | 188,591 | 109,094 |
Bangladesh | 126,587 | - |
Iran | 73,914 | 9,480 |
UAE | 60,400 | 2,902 |
Djibouti | 19,997 | - |
Egypt | 10,137 | 64,004 |
Israel | 8,831 | 662 |
Libya | 7,974 | - |
Sudan | 4,601 | - |
Russia | 4,350 | - |
Meanwhile, in the first eight months of 2012 Turkey's steel billet exports increased by 23.1 percent to 2.04 million metric tons, while the revenue for these exports stood at $1.2 billion, up by 18 percent, both compared to the same period of 2011.
In the first eight months of this year, Turkey almost tripled its steel billet exports to Saudi Arabia, while the country's steel billet exports to Egypt and to the UAE decreased by 50.8 percent and 31.4 percent respectively, all compared to the first eight months of 2011.
The distribution of Turkey's billet exports in the January-August period of this year is as follows:
