At the 18th SteelOrbis Steel Conference "New Horizons in Steel Markets" being held in Istanbul on November 28 with around 600 guests, Dr. Veysel Yayan, secretary general of the Turkish Iron and Steel Producers’ Association, stated that the global steel sector has contracted in the past two years and that the most important factor has been China, where growth has also slowed down.
Dr. Yayan said that in the first ten months this year Turkey’s crude steel production decreased by 8.8 percent. This decrease was smaller compared to that in the same period of the previous year but only due to the base effect. Turkey ranked seventh in global crude steel output last year among all countries worldwide and ranked eighth after Germany in the first ten months this year, Dr. Yayan said, noting that Turkey’s capacity utilization rate has decreased to 55.0 percent, resulting in a situation similar to the 2014-15 period.
According to the TCUD official, Turkey’s construction sector, which recorded decreases in the last five years, recorded an expansion of 5.3 percent in the first half this year. This growth emerged mainly because of the firm demand resulting from redevelopment needs after the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria on February 6. Yayan stated that, since renovation works continue around the North Anatolian fault line, the aforementioned growth is expected to continue.
In the January-September period of the current year, steel consumption in Turkey rose by 18.5 percent to 29 million mt. However, a considerable part of this consumption, namely 49.7 percent, was satisfied by imports, remaining mostly stable compared to the same period of last year. “We are at a point where Turkey has imported 230,000 mt from Egypt because of free trade agreements. Indonesia is also pushing exports, some of which are supplied by the Chinese companies in Indonesia,” Dr. Yayan commented.
He noted that flat steel production is gaining traction and the gap between flat and long steel production is getting wider. Flat steel production is expected to increase. He also stated that he is hopeful as regards the upcoming new capacities especially in the flat steel segment showing positive effects in terms of decreasing the volume of imports in 2024.
Replying to a question on how Turkey’s antidumping investigation and the resulting reduction in imports will affect Turkish capacity utilization rates, Dr. Yayan said that the capacity utilization rates should fluctuate in the range of 75-80 percent considering the amount of consumption. “Consumption reaching 38-49 million mt at the end of the year points to a rise of over ten percent. If this is to be reflected in production, around 45 million mt of steel should be produced and a capacity utilization rate of 75 percent should be recorded,” he asserted.