Turkey's crude steel production hits 16.3M tons in H1

By Muhammet Emin Horuz

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's crude steel production hit 16.3 million tons in the first half of this year, according to a trade group on Monday.

Production this January to June fell 4.1% year-on-year, the Turkish Steel Producers' Association (TCUD) said.

The volume of the country's steel product exports dropped 11.3% to 9.9 million tons during the same period.

Turkey's earnings from steel exports also slipped 17% to $6.8 billion in the first six months of this year.

But steel imports rose 10.5% on an annual basis, reaching 6.1 million tons in January-June. In terms of value, crude steel imports dropped 2.8% on an annual basis to $4.8 billion.

Citing World Steel Association data, the group said global crude steel production also saw a decline of 6% to 873 million tons in the same period.

-June figures

Some 2.8 million tons of crude steel was produced in Turkey this June, rising 3.8% year-on-year, fueled by normalization from coronavirus.

Despite the rise in June falling short of offsetting pandemic-driven declines from previous months, it signals a better performance for the rest of the year.