Turkey's cement clinker exports surge; Romania top destination

Turkey's exports of cement clinkers under HS code 252310 are estimated to exceed 7 million mt in 2025, as shipments continued to be strong at 583,000 mt in November, relatively stable month over month, the latest monthly Turkish Statistical Institute, or TUIK, data released Dec. 31 showed.

Romania remained Turkey's top export destination at 159,000 mt in October, up 56% month over month.

Shipments to Italy totaled 120,000 mt, around double year over year, while exports to Spain more than tripled.

Turkish producers' exports of clinker to Guatemala totaled 39,000 mt in November, while shipments to Benin reached 35,000 mt, both up from zero a month ago.

The sharpest decline, however, was seen in shipments to the US in November, which declined to zero from 49,500 mt a month ago.

Turkey's other clinker export destinations in November 2025 were Northern Cyprus at 36,200 mt, the Netherlands at 33,000 mt and Greece at 26,200 mt.

With strong export figures in November, Turkey's exports of clinkers reached 6.85 million mt in the first eleven months of the year, TUIK data showed.

Turkey's clinker exports were at 5.22 million mt in 2024, according to Turkish Cement Manufacturers' Association data.

Italy was the top market by far in the eleven-month period of 2025, with exports reaching 953,500 mt, followed by Romania at 692,300 mt.

Turkey's other top export destinations over January-November 2025 were Ghana at 493,700 mt, Spain at 492,200 mt, France at 397,000 mt and the US at 343,500 mt.

According to Turkish Cement Producers' Union (TurkCimento) data, Turkey's clinker production capacity was at 101 million mt/year, while cement production capacity stood at 149.3 million mt/year.

Volkan Bozay, senior executive at TurkCimento, said in a recent statement to the official news agency AA Dec. 30, that if the draft regulations come into effect, the costs covered under CBAM could increase by up to five times.

In particular, the use of default values increases the risk of encountering higher-than-expected costs in the cement industry, he said.

"Therefore, it is critically important for each facility to accurately and reliably present and verify the real emission data separately on both cement and clinker bases, in order to calculate costs more realistically," Bozbay noted.

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed the cement clinker FOB Turkey price at $45/mt on Dec. 24.