The first six months of the year witnessed to a cement export amounting to USD 196 million. Syria ranked first in export operations while the U.S. ranked second.
The domestic market showed a decrease while export operations continued to increase without slowing down, according to the figures announced by the Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB) for the first half of 2017. About 11.5 percent of the cement produced was subject to export operations where Syria ranked first and the U.S. ranked second. The cement export revenue was announced as USD 196 million, according to the figures for the first six months.
TÇMB revealed that the cement production decreased by 4.2 percent in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period of last year.
The domestic sales also witnessed to a decrease of 4.3 percent in the first six months of 2017 compared to the same period of last year. The cement export, on the other hand, increased by 1.1 percent to reach 11.5 percent in the same period compared to the same period of last year. The amount of the cement produced in the first half was 36 million metric tons, of which over 32 million metric tons were announced as domestic sales and over 4 million metric tons were announced as foreign sales.
Evaluating the subject, the Chairman of the Board of TÇMB M. Şefik Tüzün said: “The 2017 figures came out as expected. The decrease seen in sales in the winter due to climate conditions recovered with the start of May. However, a new shrinkage appeared in sales in June due to the effects of the Ramadan month and (the following) religious holiday.
We expect the figures for the second half of the year to be at more impressive levels. In addition, when we take a look at the export figures of Turkey we see that the cement sector put its mark under yet another huge success. Export increased by 2.3 percent in June 2017 compared to the same month of 2016, reaching USD 13 billion 166 million, and import decreased by 1.5 percent to USD 19 billion 177 million, according to the provisional foreign trade data created under the collaboration of the Turkish Statistical Institute and the Ministry of Customs and Trade. At this point, (we see that) the cement sector greatly contributed to the economy by exporting 11.5 percent of the cement produced.”
