Energy minister: we expect to have 800 mln TL profit from boron trade

ANKARA (A.A) - November 9, 2011 - Turkish Energy & Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz has said that Turkey expected to have 800 million Turkish Lira (TL) of profit from boron exports by the end of 2011. (one USD equals 1.759 TL) Turkey's profit had been 230 million TL before Justice & Development (AK) Party came into rule in 2002, Yildiz told AA correspondent on Wednesday. Yildiz said that Turkish Eti Mining Company (which has facilities for boron production) had nearly 2,000 customers in 84 countries of the world, adding that Turkey had been the leader of world boron market since 2005. Noting that Turkey increased its capacity five times in the last 7-8 years, Yildiz said that all the boron for the next three years had already been sold. "We don't have any boron to sell for at least the next three years," he said. Yildiz said that the production of boron chemicals & equivalent products had been 436,000 tons in 2002, adding that they were expecting this figure to increase to 1.9 million tons in 2011. We target to increase the boron chemicals & equivalent products capacity to 3.4 million tons in 2015, and 5.5 million tons in 2023, said Yildiz. Noting that China was the most important market for Turkey in boron export, Yildiz said that boron constituted 40 percent of Turkey's total export to China. Yildiz said that world's boron reserve was four billion tons, and annual consumption was four million tons. Turkey had 3.043 billion tons of boron reserve. Boron is used in fibre glass, ceramics, agriculture and detergent sectors.