According to a statement released by the Turkish Steel Association (TCUD), in March this year, crude steel production rose 6.4 percent year-on-year to 3.3 million tons in Turkey, which is the world's eighth-largest steel-producing country, while in the first quarter, production rose 5.3 percent year-on-year to 9.7 million tons. Turkey's billet and slab production stood at 1.88 million tonnes and 1.45 million tonnes in March, down 4.6 percent and up 25.1 percent year-on-year, respectively. Turkey produced 5.74 million tons of billets in the January-March period, up 1.6 percent, versus 3.99 million tons of slabs, up 17.1 percent from the same period in 2025.
Turkey's finished steel consumption rose 20.9 percent year-on-year to 3.3 million tons in the month, while in the January-March period the country produced finished steel. Steel consumption rose 8.9 percent year-on-year to 9.9 million tons.
Turkey's steel exports rose five percent to 1.5 million tons in March, and the value of those exports increased 0.5 percent year-on-year to $1 billion. In the first three months, the country's steel exports fell 6.8 percent to 3.5 million tons, and the value of those exports fell 9.4 percent to $2.3 billion year on year. Exports of flat and long products from January to March were 1.4 million tons and 1.86 million tons, respectively, down 10.5 percent and 9.1 percent year-on-year, while exports of semi-finished products totaled 247,787 tons, up 63.6 percent year-on-year.
In March, Turkey's steel imports increased by 38.2 percent to Import volume was 1.6 million tons, and the value of these imports increased by 23.4 percent to US$1.1 billion, both year on year. Between January and March, the country's steel imports increased 2.6 percent to 4.3 million tons, while the value of those imports fell 1.5 percent to $3 billion year on year. In terms of imported products, imports of flat and long products in the first three months amounted to 2.07 million tons and 349,601 tons, respectively, an increase of 1.1 percent and a decrease of 2.8 percent year on year, while imports of semi-finished products amounted to 1.91 million tons, an increase of 5.4 percent year on year.
In the first quarter, Turkey's steel export ratio to imports fell to 77.7 percent from 84.5 percent recorded in the same period the previous year.
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