According to a statement released by the Turkish Iron and Steel Producers' Association (DCUD), in the first seven months of this year Turkey's crude steel production rose by 21 percent year on year reaching 19.2 million mt. Turkey thus ranks 10th among the top crude steel producing countries worldwide. Meanwhile, China, the world's largest crude steel producer, increased its crude steel production by 10.3 percent over the same period last year to 410 million mt in the first seven months of 2011.

In the first seven months of this year, Turkey's steel billet output moved up by 13 percent to 13.6 million mt, and its slab output climbed by 46.4 percent to 55 million mt, both on year-on-year basis.

Meanwhile, in the first seven months of 2011 Turkey's finished steel production amounted to 18 million mt with an increase of 23.6 percent compared to the same period last year. 71 percent of this figure is made up of long steel products, while the remaining 29 percent consists of flat steel. Turkey's flat steel production rose to 5.1 million mt from the 3.4 million mt recorded in the corresponding perion of 2010.

In January-July, of the 19.2 million mt of crude steel production in Turkey, steel production using electric arc furnaces (EAF) amounted to 14.2 million mt, while production via blast furnaces (BFs) was 5 million mt.

In January-July, Turkey's total iron and steel export volume including pipes and steel and iron products amounted to 11 million mt with an increase of 10.2 percent compared to the same period of 2010, while these exports were valued at $9.6 billion with an increase of 31.4 percent year. Turkey's long steel product exports amounted to 6 million mt in the given period with an increase of 11 percent, while its flat steel exports were 1.6 million mt with a sharp increase of 162 percent, both compared to the same period of 2010.

On the other hand, Turkey's total iron and steel import volume including pipes and steel and iron products amounted to 6.2 million mt with a decrease of 11.2 percent compared to the same period of 2010, while these imports were valued at $6.8 million with an increase of 16.7 percent year. D��D said in the report that the increase of the import value in spite of the decrease in volume is due to the high steel prices and exchange rate fluctation.