Bulent Saygılı: Flat steel price trend to diverge from long product trend in 2013

During the panel discussion at the SteelOrbis Market Talks Meeting held in Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey on February 13, Turkish steelmaker Toscelik's foreign trade and corporate sales director Bulent Saygılı said that Toscelik's flat steel project currently produces enough to meet the company's own needs, adding that with new investments the company could become a real flat steel producer with sales to other companies while also becoming an exporter.
 
Mr. Saygılı stressed that the company's aim is to provide customers with the product they want, of the desired grade, and when they want it, stating that Toscelik's ERW plant located in Osmaniye in southern Turkey, commissioned in 2012, was established to this end. He emphasized that the company's overall product range and production choices are quite flexible, so they can switch between long steel production and flat steel production according to the market situation. The Toscelik official also said that they are planning to add two new pipe products to the company's portfolio, and, once these projects are complete, customers will be able to meet their pipe product needs from a single source.
 
Saygılı also stated that previously the main producer in the market determined all the conditions, while currently producers generally anticipate the needs of customers before the need arises and provide customers with the product of the desired grade at the desired time. He went on to say that Toscelik has changed its sales organization to provide support for stockists and aims to turn its customers into business partners within a few years.
 
Bulent Saygılı recalled that in 2012 Turkey was the first to be affected by the contraction in the EU and product diversification was not possible in the short term and the prices could not be revised downwards given cost pressure. In 2013, amid signs of recovery in the EU and anticipated positive growth in the second half as well as the recovery in Far Eastern markets, Mr. Saygılı forecast that the flat steel product prices will show a divergence from the long product price trends. He also said he expects rebar prices to follow a downtrend or remain stable because of the lackluster demand in the construction industry in the current year. Saygılı concluded that it would not be wise to make a prediction for flat steel product prices based on rebar prices.