At the Eurometal Steel Day & YISAD Flat Steel Conference, held at Istanbul Marriott Hotel Asia on Thursday, April 27, in cooperation with SteelOrbis, Ayhan Uçar, procurement manager of Turkish steel producer Tatçelik, talked about the company’s current situation and his future expectations for the steel industry.
According to Mr. Uçar, having increased its capacity by between two- and three-fold in the last five years, Tatçelik now has a total annual rolling capacity of 1.5 million mt at its three plants. He stated that, in line with the company's goal of increasing value-added product investments, its capacity will increase by 650,000 mt with its new galvanizing line investment. He added that Tatçelik exports to more than 70 countries, primarily to Europe and North Africa, and that they will continue to expand their export markets. In addition, Mr. Uçar added that, based on the result of the antidumping duty review for galvanized steel in Europe, Tatçelik is subject to the lowest duty rate among Turkish producers, with a 2.4 percent rate.
Recalling that the Turkish steel industry ranked eighth in the world steel production in 2022, Uçar stated that the steel production capacity in Turkey is unable to compete with the Asian market in the current market conditions, though the country can regain its competitiveness when flat steel investments are implemented and when the pressure from energy costs eases. While the Turkish steel industry has sufficient capacity for long products, Uçar said that Turkey may halve its steel flat steel imports in the coming years with new flat product investments. Pointing out that the gap between domestic and import HRC prices is currently wide, he said that the price gap in question may increase slightly when the new import tax comes into effect in May. In addition, noting that the duty rates to be applied on HRC and coated steel are same, he stated that the duty for coated steel must be higher in regards to added-value.
Meanwhile, the Tatçelik official stated that global steel consumption is expected to increase by approximately 150 million mt in the next 25 years as the world’s population increases, especially in Asia and Africa, and that new investments are needed to meet the higher demand.