Turkey produces 3.1M tons crude steel in May

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's crude steel production totaled 3.1 million tons in May, a trade association said on Tuesday.

The figure showed an 8% drop from the same month of last year, Turkish Steel Producers' Association (TCUD) said in a statement.

The country's steel export volume surged 30.3% year-on-year to 2.1 million tons in May.

The value of steel exports also jumped 12.2% to $1.6 billion during the same period.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s steel imports declined 45.4% to 974,000 tons. The report showed that Turkey paid $865 million for imports, up 40.9% on an annual basis in the month.

The TCUD said world crude steel output increased 5.4% to 162.7 million tons in May, citing the World Steel Association (worldsteel) data.

Crude steel output of China, world's top crude steel producer, was 89.1 million tons, rising 10.2%.

In the first five months of 2019, Turkey produced 14.3 million tons of crude steel, posting a 10% annual decrease.

Turkish crude steel export volume rose 20.4% to 9.8 million tons in the January-May period. The country earned $7.2 billion from the export in the same period.

The country's steel import between January and May amounted to 4.9 million tons, down 34.5% year-on-year. The value of imports also dropped 33.4% to $4.2 billion in the first five months of this year.