In the January-September period of the current year, Turkey's steel exports increased by one percent year on year to 12.3 million mt, while the value of these exports totaled $6.7 billion, down 13.4 percent on year-on-year basis, according to the data released by the Turkish Steel Exporters' Association (CIB).
In the January-September period, Turkey's main steel export destination was the Middle East, which received 4.1 million mt of steel products from Turkey. The Middle East was followed by the EU, North America and North Africa, which imported 2.6 million mt, 1.8 million mt and 1.7 million mt of Turkish steel products respectively. In the given period, Egypt, Yemen and Israel recorded the highest year-on-year increases in steel product imports from Turkey.
Meanwhile, in the January-September period this year, Turkey's main exported steel product was rebar with total exports amounting to 5.4 million mt. Rebar was followed by hot rolled flat steel exports amounting to 1.4 million mt, welded pipe exports totaling 1.3 million mt and steel section exports reaching 1.1 million mt. In the given period, exports of wire rod, cold rolled flat steel and hot rolled flat steel showed the highest year-on-year increases in volume.
In September alone, Turkey's steel exports decreased by 5.8 percent year on year to 1.3 million mt, while the value of these exports totaled $718 million, down 5.4 percent compared to the same month of the previous year.
“We experienced a slowdown in exports due to the long Feast of Sacrifice holiday last month, but we believe we will reverse this situation in the coming period. Meanwhile, we see that our exports to EU countries and North Africa continue to increase and the upward trend of exports to Egypt, Yemen, Israel, Spain and the Netherlands is a positive sign. Thanks to political and economic stability in Yemen, the partial recovery in our exports to the country still continues. In the first nine months of this year, our steel exports to Yemen increased by 100 percent to 450,000 mt compared to the same period of 2015. We expect that in the coming period the positive developments in the most important markets for the Turkish steel industry will affect our overall steel exports,” commented CIB chairman Namık Ekinci.