Turkey experienced a significant decline of 19.1 pct YoY in crude steel production in the first five months of 2023, amounting to 13 mln tons. In the month of May alone, there was a 10.3 pct YoY decrease, resulting in 2.9 mln tons of crude steel production.
Despite the challenges in domestic production, the consumption of finished steel demonstrated growth, with a 13.7 pct YoY increase, reaching 16.5 mln tons in the January-May period. In May, finished steel consumption grew by 2.6 pct, totaling 4 mln tons.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s steel imports saw an increase of 25.2 pct YoY, reaching 8 mln tons in the January-May 2023 period. However, the import value decreased by 3.2 pct YoY, amounting to USD 6.8 bln. In May, steel imports saw a sharp increase of 85.6 pct YoY, with 2.1 mln tons imported, and the import value grew by 37 pct YoY, totaling USD 1.8 bln.
Turkish steel exports, on the other hand, dropped by nearly 48 pct YoY, with a total of 3.6 mln tons exported during the first five months of 2023. This led to a significant drop of 53 pct in export revenues, amounting to USD 3.1 bln. In May 2023, steel exports decreased by 36.1 pct YoY to 778,700 tons, and export revenues experienced a substantial decline of 47.4 pct, totaling USD 684.1 mln.
