Turkey's iron and steel imports from China increased four times in the first quarter of the year to 567,000 tons. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Turkish Steel Producers Association (TÇÜD) Secretary-General Veysek Yayan said there was a 9 percent increase in consumption within the period between January and March and the manufacturing of raw steel dropped by 8.8 percent in the same period to 7.73 million tons. Yayan said that this is a sign that the need has been covered by exports and that within the same term the total iron and steel exports increased by 33 percent. He underlined that the purchases from China had an important effect in the increase in exports and in the first quarter of 2014 the imports from China had increased by 284 percent, meaning that 2.3 million tons of steel and iron have been imported from China. "Unfortunately, this is not a situation that the Turkish economy can endure," Yayan added. Yayan also said that the antidumping investigation initiated by Turkey for the import of hot rolled steel products from China, France, Japan, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine in January 2015 had a crucial effect in the great increase in imports. "Due to the investigation some iron and steel producers are increasing their resources and exports to Turkey. The state had a temporary measure to be applied in such cases and we believe that the conditions we are in are suitable to implement that measure because if there were no changes in export conditions then this demand of ours might be deemed unfair. However, on the contrary, we are experiencing a great deal of increase in exports. The increase in exports from China is a direct result of the investigation," he said, adding that other countries are being more cautious in this respect, yet the Chinese are acting with the intention to damage the whole of our local market. Yayan also said that representatives of certain sectors using steel products are demanding remittance of export taxes, but importing materials with higher added value than they are producing is the real cause of the problem. Emphasizing that the high levels of import were understandable as production in Turkey could not meet demand, Yayan pointed out that many investments have been made in hot rolled steel production along with the elimination of various taxes on input materials by the government, and the sector has now reached its full production capacity. He also said that foreign-dependent mechanism should not be established in terms of input as it would have a negative effect on the balance of payments and that the government has noticed that raw materials should be obtained from domestic resources and is striving to stir the foreign-dependent input procurement system toward domestic products. "We do not believe a demand for increasing imports and eliminating custom taxes suits the situation Turkey is in," Yayan said.