At the 8th SteelOrbis Turkish Steel Market Conference held in Istanbul on November 29, Selçuk Özdil, board member of the Turkish Structural Steel Association (TUCSA), said that structural steel usage in construction has become more widespread in recent years in Turkey.
According to the figures presented by Mr. Özdil, apparent structural steel consumption in Turkey is expected to total 2.8 million metric tons in 2013, while production is foreseen to reach 4.05 million mt with an aggregate installed capacity of seven million mt. In 2013, Turkey structural steel exports are predicted to total 1.8 million metric tons, against imports of 554,000 mt.
Among the advantages of structural steel usage, Mr. Özdil said that the net usable area of buildings is far higher than with traditional concrete constructions, while the practice of Turkish real estate investors to make contracts based on gross area instead of net usable area is slowing down the increase in the number of structural steel buildings.