Russian-Turkey trade turnover doubles to $47 bln in 9M, could reach $60 bln in year - Econ Ministry

MOSCOW. Oct 21 (Interfax) - Trade turnover between Russia and Turkey doubled year-on-year in January-September 2022 and amounted to $ 47 billion, Deputy Economic Development Minister Vladimir Ilyichev said during the Made in Russia Forum.

The Ministry expects trade turnover with Turkey to grow to $60 billion by the end of the year, but this forecast may be conservative in light of 9M dynamics, he said.

"Trade turnover should reach $60 billion, and cargo turnover in the Azov-Black Sea basin, according to our estimates, according to the Economic Development Ministry estimate, which we calculated based on estimates of trade turnover, primarily with Turkey, from transit trade turnover, could reach 250 million tonnes per year. But perhaps our estimates will be quite conservative, because the data that we have, for example, for 9M of this year, they show that we have almost $47 billion in trade turnover with Turkey in the first nine months of this year alone. This is almost double last year's growth," Ilyichev said.

According to the Federal Customs Service of Russia, in January-September 2021 trade turnover with Turkey was $23.3 billion (an increase of 53.9% compared to January-September 2020). For the whole year of 2021, the figure was $33 billion (an increase of 57.0%).

Energy commodities accounted for the bulk of increased exports to Turkey, but there was also an increase in non-energy exports - by 19%, to $10.5 billion. "We see that the supply to Turkey is growing, and in the wood, pulp, wood products, wood processing increased significantly enough by 1.6-fold, to $1.5 billion, in chemical products - plastics, synthetic rubber and so on," - he said.

The supply of certain types of metal products to Turkey has also increased. "Despite our forecasts, there is an increase in some types of steel products, although it is clear that the sanctions that Europe imposes, for example, significantly reduce those estimates of the supply of steel products to Turkey, which we had a little earlier," the official said.

"In general, despite the difficulties with logistics, which we have all run into, and which today have already been talked about and discussed, we have with Turkey a marked increase in the supply of exports, a marked increase in the supply of imported goods, too, for obvious reasons," Ilyichev said.