SteelOrbis talked to Mehmet Zeren, general secretary of the Turkish Steel Pipe Manufacturers Association (CEBID), about what happened in 2019 and what is expected in 2020.
2019 was a difficult year for the Turkish steel pipe industry. The contraction of the domestic market due to the depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar in the second half of 2018 continued in 2019. Our sector was also negatively impacted by the reduced activity in the construction and automotive sectors and very low levels of public investments.
For 2019, steel pipe production is expected to decline by approximately 12 percent year on year to 4.1 million mt. Protectionist measures which were started by the US with the Section 232 duties in 2018 and spread to our other export markets, continued in 2019. While the US was one of our most important export markets until three years ago, our exports to this destination almost came to halt due to the 50 percent import duty and also following the 25 percent import duty. Meanwhile, the imports quotas imposed by the EU also hampered our exports. In addition, EU quotas on large diameter pipes, which were imposed on country basis and allowed very small tonnages to be imported from Turkey, have been switched to global quotas owing to our efforts. With this change in imposition of quotas, large diameter pipe exports from Turkey to the EU are expected to increase in 2020. Meanwhile, in Iraq, one of our most important export markets, the imposition of additional duty on imports issued by the regional government in North Iraq, blocked the potential rise in our exports to the country. On the other hand, the 25 percent customs duty in Morocco and the safeguard duty investigation in Gulf countries negatively impacted our exports to these destinations.
As a result, in the first 11 months of last year, Turkey’s welded pipe exports decreased by 5.22 percent year on year to 1.26 million mt, while the value of these exports declined by 16.69 percent to $1.26 billion. In the given period, the leading export destinations were Romania, the UK and Iraq.
January-November 2019 |
January-November 2018 |
Change |
||||
Country |
Amount (mt) |
Value (USD) |
Amount (mt) |
Value (USD) |
Amount (mt) |
Value (USD) |
Romania |
299,780 |
198,962,746 |
291,512 |
223,734,436 |
2.84 |
-11.07 |
UK |
213,934 |
135,626,887 |
198,789 |
141,690,903 |
7.62 |
-4.28 |
Iraq |
169,855 |
101,534,451 |
149,624 |
102,427,636 |
13.52 |
-0.87 |
Israel |
104,419 |
71,365,695 |
78,611 |
63,230,161 |
32.83 |
12.87 |
Belgium |
99,136 |
59,465,595 |
69,081 |
48,767,610 |
43.51 |
21.94 |
US |
86,145 |
54,742,623 |
252,290 |
232,932,293 |
-65.85 |
-76.5 |
Georgia |
59,163 |
39,023,052 |
63,711 |
46,304,262 |
-7.14 |
-15.72 |
Germany |
55,154 |
46,742,973 |
126,116 |
106,088,292 |
-56.27 |
-55.94 |
Morocco |
49,200 |
35,590,338 |
13,574 |
10,976,661 |
262.45 |
224.24 |
Canada |
48,484 |
46,091,807 |
58,474 |
52,564,307 |
-17.08 |
-12.31 |
Others |
562,203 |
468,254,687 |
541,802 |
480,541,887 |
3.77 |
-2.56 |
TOTAL |
1,747,417 |
1,257,400,854 |
1,843,583 |
1,509,258,449 |
-5.22 |
-16.69 |
Source: Turkish Steel Exporters' Association
As for 2020, the tightening of the Turkish welded pipe market is expected to ease and, in line with our economic growth, steel pipe production is expected to increase slightly. Meanwhile, steel pipe exports from Turkey are expected to be at similar levels to 2019.