At the opening of the SteelOrbis 2016 Fall Conference & 75th IREPAS Meeting held in Vienna on September 25-27, Murat Cebecioglu, chairman of IREPAS, the global association of producers and exporters of long steel products, and also export manager of Turkish steelmaker ICDAS, welcomed all the participants to the event, while stating that IREPAS will continue to bring inspired people together to ensure that the association remains at the cutting edge. The SteelOrbis 2016 Fall Conference & 75th IREPAS Meeting has gathered together a total of 90 representatives from 41 steel producers and 44 representatives from 30 raw material suppliers.
The IREPAS chairman shared some updates regarding the market situation: he stated that increased stability and reduced price spreads are observed in the global long steel markets, while there has been no change in the overall supply-demand situation.
Mr. Cebecioglu went on to say that neither Chinese output nor export volumes have slowed down, though the Chinese seem to have reduced appetite for competition with Russia. He pointed out that the last quarter is always challenging but added that IREPAS believes the market is in a better position in the last quarter this year compared to previous years.