Steel production rises sharply in first half

ANKARA

Turkey’s crude steel production amounted to 19.7 million tons in the first half of 2021, rising nearly 21 percent from the same period of last year.

In June, local steelmakers’ output climbed 17.9 percent to stand at 3.4 million tons, according to data from the trading group TÇÜD.

At 20 million tons of production in January-June, Turkey was the eighth-largest steel producer in the world.

On the export front, the country’s shipments of crude steel exhibited a 17.8 percent rise in June compared with the same month of 2020 to reach 1.8 million tons, while in terms of revenue, exports soared nearly 95 percent year-on-year to $1.4 billion.

From January to June, local steel producers boosted their sales to foreign markets by 17 percent to 9.2 million tons, generating $6.7 billion in export revenues, a 65 percent increase on an annual basis.

In June, the country increased its imports of crude steel by 13 percent to 1.2 million tons, and the cost of imports rose nearly 50 percent to $1.1 billion.

In the first half of the year, the country imported 8.2 million tons of steel, increasing imports by 35.3 percent year-on-year. In terms of value, imports jumped more than 80 percent to $6.6 billion.

The export/import coverage ratio declined to 100.8 in January-June from 110.1 a year ago.

Data from TÇÜD also showed that local steel consumption amounted to 17.4 million tons in the first six months of 2021, up 29.4 percent from a year ago.

“Steel consumption, which declined last year due to COVID-19, recovered in the first half of this year, pushing prices up in global markets,” said Veysel Yayan, the general secretary of TÇÜD.

He noted that there were fluctuations in production, consumption, exports and imports in the first half due to base-effect, adding that production, consumption and foreign trade would stabilize in the second half of the year.