Steel exports reach $9.2 bln in first half of 2021
İZMİR
Turkey’s steel imports hit $9.2 billion in the first half of this year, according to the Aegean Exporters Association (EİB) figures.
Israel was Turkey’s top market for steel exports with a total of $580 million. Spain ($568 million) and Italy ($537 million) followed it.
Turkish steel exports to Peru skyrocketed 778 percent year-on-year to $300.4 million in the first half of 2021.
Meanwhile, exports of ferrous and non-ferrous metals rose 51 percent to $5 billion.
Producers can hardly cope up with the demand, said Yalçın Ertan, the head of the Aegean Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metal Exporters Association, on July 23.
“We can schedule delivery deadlines for three months later at the earliest. We have already completed all export bookings for September,” he added.
“We deem the upcoming year as the rebalancing period. The demand slumped in 2020 due to factory closures and production suspensions caused by the pandemic. As the pandemic slowed, the demand has soared compared to 2020,” Ertan said.
Ertan said that the export volume target of the Aegean region producers was $1.4 billion at the beginning of the year and that they already reached the level of $1.7 billion in the last 12 months toward the end of June.
