Turkish manufacturing output rebounds in June

Turkey's manufacturing output rebounded further in June from a month earlier, and even increased on the year.

Calendar-adjusted manufacturing output rose by 1pc on the year in June, having fallen by as much as 20.6pc in May. June manufacturing output was 19pc higher than in May.

Industrial activity had already started to pick up in May as Covid-19 restrictions were eased. And some industrial facilities reached capacity in late May following the Eid holiday.

Turkey's industrial output was particularly low in June last year. Output declined sharply from late 2018 as a result of Turkey's currency crisis, only starting to recover from September last year when it registered year-on-year increases for each month before falling by 1.9pc in March. Operations in some major organised industrial zones and other large production sites, including those for car manufacturing, were suspended or reduced from the second half of March in response to the pandemic.

Output by some gas-intensive manufacturing sectors rose on the year (see table), with the manufacture of non-metal minerals significantly up by 13.7pc and chemicals and chemical products up by 2.6pc. But demand in other sectors still was down on the year, with production of coke and refined petroleum products and basic metals dropping by 12.3pc and 1.2pc, respectively.

The wider industrial output index also rose slightly, by 0.1pc, in June from a year earlier, but the increase was more pronounced compared with May, jumping by 17.6pc.

Iron ore mining increased on the year by 4.4pc, having been down by 24.3pc in May. Mining of coal and lignite extended its decline in June — falling by 28.8pc — but this was less pronounced than the 34.5pc drop in May. And the year-on-year decline in mining and quarrying output was only 5pc, against 26.3pc in May — all of which are included within broader industrial output figures.

But despite higher industrial demand, overall Turkish gas consumption dropped to 74mn m³/d in June from 83mn m³/d a year earlier. This was even as power-sector gas burn jumped to 16.6mn m³/d from 13mn m³/d, energy ministry data show. A further breakdown of gas demand data by user category is not yet available for June.

By Eleni Charisi