Turkey has purchased 27,800 tons of scrap metal from Venezuela’s state-run import-export company Venezuelan Corporation of Foreign Trade (Corpovex), Bloomberg reported on Friday.
A video posted on Twitter by Corpovex on Nov. 13 showed a container being loaded on the ship Anshun, which was spotted on August 30, Bloomberg wrote, in Turkey’s İskenderun port, which has been operated by a business ally of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Limak Holding, since 2011.
Turkey has been a supporter of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro, and Venezuelan gold has been shipped to Turkey for refinement since 2018, with some $900 million’s worth of gold shipped that year.
The Venezuelan government also uses Turkish products of staple foodstuffs such as pasta and rice in the discounted food packets it delivers to the country’s citizens every month.
Despite Turkey's continued support for the country and Maduro himself , Turkish state-run Ziraat Bank closed its account with the Venezuelan central bank following additional U.S. sanctions on Venezuela announced in August this year. The bank was crucial for Venezuela’s payments to contractors and imports of products.
Source: Ahval |