Ugur Dalbeler, General Manager of Colakoglu Metalurji AS said that Chinese long product exports were an important threat for Turkish long product exports.
According to Dalbeler, who spoke at SteelOrbis Turkish Steel Market 2006 Conference, the increase in
China's long product exports will eat into
Turkey's share in long product exports market. Currently,
Turkey produces 9 million metric tons of long products per annum, while consumes only 3.8 million metric tons of that figure. On the other hand
China produces 67.5 million metric tons and consumes 65.9 million metric tons.
The export markets of Turkish long steel mills and traders are narrowing down.
Turkey has began losing its share in the imports to the US and EU markets, and currently
Middle East, Gulf and North
Africa are the main destinations for Turkish long steel exports.
Dalbeler pointed out the weak points of Turkish long steel market as being highly scattered, imbalanced
production, dependence on imports for raw materials, dependence on exports for sales, and strong competitors. On the other hand, the strong points of the market are being dynamic, being located at an equal distance to world markets, proximity to
scrap sources and having a good reputation for a long time in exports.
As also stated by Veysel Yayan, Chairman of Turkish
Iran and Steel Manufacturers Association, the
production of flat products in
Turkey is becoming stabilized while the
consumption is increasing. Meanwhile
billet and long product exports are decreasing.
Therefore, both experts agree that
Turkey needs to reduce
investments in long steel
production and increase the
investments in value added flat steel
production. However, this is not quite easy, because flat steel
investments require considerably more capital than long steel
investments.