Turkey breaks record in crude steel production in 2017
Turkish economy which needs to improve its performance to overcome the deficit in balance of payments saw a considerable increase crude steel production in 2017 with a jump of 13.2 percent as compared to the previous year. Crude steel production in the industry went up to 37.5 million tons, the highest level in history of the republic. Experts commented that domestic demand has played an important role in this favorable progress. The figures are based on data provided by Turkey’s Association of Steel Producers (TÇÜD)
In the same period, crude steel production also increased by 13.2 percent to 33 million 523 thousand tons from 33 million 163 thousand tons and achieved the highest production figure of its history.
As far as exports are concerned, the sector showed a performance increase of 8.4 percent reaching 18 million 323 thousand tons in 2017 which corresponds to an increase of 24.1 percent in value. The exports of the sector totaled up to USD 13 billion 389 million in 2017. Imports in this period on the other hand, decreased by 6.8 percent to 16 million 339 thousand tons while the total value of imports increased by 13.6 percent to USD 12 billion 385 million. Thus, the sector closed the year 2017 with about $ 1 billion surplus in foreign trade. The import coverage ratio.
Exports believe The Turkish steel sector is on its way to becoming a major supplier of the internal market in the broader spectrum, especially concerning the construction sector. Concerning the increase in exports, professionals comment this positive progress is due to improved quality and higher added value products.
The capacity utilization rate in the sector was observed to exceed 70 percent which was also partly due to the reduction in China’s production capacity last year.
