Adnan Naci Faydasıçok, chairman of the board of Hasçelik, talked to SteelOrbis, sharing his review of 2025 and his expectations for 2026.
How did 2025 go for the steel sector and the global markets?
In terms of the global steel sector, 2025 saw a slowdown in demand and, consequently, limited growth. While ongoing infrastructure investments in Asian and Middle Eastern markets provided a balancing factor, the slowdown in the construction and automotive sectors in the European market created pressure on the demand side. In addition, China's policies to support domestic demand and price competition from its exports caused price pressure to continue in world markets.
As a country that accounts for approximately half of global steel production, China continues to determine the direction of world steel markets with its industrial and trade policies. In recent years, its approach to protecting producers through state support, such as low-interest loans provided through public banks, subsidies for energy costs, tax deferrals offered through local governments and indirect incentives to maintain production capacity, has significantly reduced the cost pressure on industrialists. Thanks to these support mechanisms, Chinese steel producers are able to continue production uninterrupted even during periods of weak domestic demand.
High-volume production that cannot be consumed in the Chinese domestic market is directed to global markets through exports. At this point, price competition is clearly at the forefront of China's export strategy. Producers who gain a cost advantage through state support can offer prices below international market prices in many markets. This creates serious competitive pressure for producers in countries operating under free market conditions.
The availability of Chinese products at low prices in world markets not only drives down prices but also narrows profit margins in global steel trade, leads to delayed investments and negatively impacts capacity utilization rates, particularly for producers in developing countries. This scenario leads to the emergence of a state-supported competitive environment rather than the natural equilibrium of trade.
This situation makes it imperative for countries producing under free market conditions, particularly Turkey, to make more effective use of trade defense instruments, antidumping and subsidy investigations, and multilateral trade mechanisms.
For Hasçelik, 2025 was a year in which transformation and growth were consolidated with concrete results. In line with our strategic goals, we continued to steadily increase our production capacity, product diversity and sustainability-focused investments.
One of our most important milestones during this period was the launch of our new generation steel mill investment in Bilecik-Osmaneli. This marked a new chapter in Hasçelik's future and reflected our environmentally friendly production approach.
We also made progress in line with our roadmap in terms of our goals of ensuring sustainability in customer satisfaction, expanding digitalization projects, and improving the employee experience. Thus, we can say that we ended 2025 having achieved most of our corporate goals despite global pressures.
What are your expectations for 2026?
In 2026, we will continue to focus on value-added production, energy efficiency and digitalization. With our new steel mill investment, we aim to strengthen our position in international competition and grow in the domestic market through high-quality production.
2026 will be a year in which we will strengthen our investments in operational excellence and sustainability. With our Bilecik steel mill investment reaching full capacity, we plan to increase employment in engineering, production, quality and technical areas. We will also open new positions for our R&D, digitalization, process improvement, and energy efficiency projects. At the group level, renewable energy investments and technology modernization will remain our priority.