According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in July this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit increased 22.5 percent to $9.8 billion compared to $8 billion in July last year. In the iron and steel sector, Turkey's foreign trade deficit was $855 million in July, increasing compared to $756 million recorded in July 2012.
In July this year, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked fifth among the products with the highest export value, totaling $773.5 million, down by 5.3 percent from June and by 13.3 percent year on year. Motor vehicles and parts was the sector with the highest export value in July with $1.6 billion, up 38.2 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, in July exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked seventh among the products with the highest export value, rose four percent month on month and were up 12.6 percent compared to July 2012, amounting to $540.3 million.
In the first seven months of the current year, the country's iron and steel exports stood at $6.3 billion, while its exports of articles of iron or steel amounted to $3.6 billion, decreasing by 8.5 percent and up 4.3 percent respectively, both compared to the corresponding period of 2012.