During the SteelOrbis 2017 Spring Conference & 76th IREPAS Meeting held in Budapest on March 26-28, Murat Cebecioglu from Turkish steel producer ICDAS, chairman of IREPAS and also of the producers committee, stated that the producers committee agreed that market sentiment is very positive, with steel consumption increasing in parallel with GDP growth. He said that rising production volumes will not be a problem in terms of prices because China is not exporting as much as it used to.
Mr. Cebecioglu said that reduced exports from China have provided an opportunity for other producers: for example, Turkish mills have had a chance to sell to the Southeast Asian markets and he believes that as long as they continue to have a price advantage they will continue selling to these markets. Regarding sales to the UAE and Egypt, the committee chairman said that in the UAE new capacities are coming online, which means enough capacity to cover domestic demand. He added that the Turkish mills are out of the picture because of prices. With the price structure today, it is not possible for Turkish mills to make profitable sales to the UAE and Egypt, he noted.
Commenting on the preliminary duties imposed by the US against rebar imports, Mr. Cebecioglu said that Turkey will still be exporting to the US since demand is present. He pointed out that as long as the final rates remain around the same range as the preliminary results (5.29-7.07 percent) Turkish exports to the US will continue. Nevertheless, he affirmed that protectionism remains a problem around the world, stressing that at the end of the day it hurts everyone in the market.
The IREPAS chairman concluded by saying that he does not expect much change following the referendum to be held in April in Turkey, given the healthy demand and many projects such as metro expansions and the bridge being built over the Dardanelles.