The Turkish government is considering a cancelation or reduction of the import duties on flat rolled steel products following requests from Turkish end-users, rerollers and coaters of flat steel products.
SteelOrbis has been informed by Turkey White Goods Suppliers Association (BEYSAD) chairman Murat Onay that, in a meeting held in early July at the Turkish Undersecretariat for Foreign Trade (DTM) - a meeting which included domestic steel producers such as Erdemir, Borcelik and Isdemir, and end-users like BEYSAD - the flat rolled steel users asked the government to cancel or reduce the 13 percent duty on hot rolled coil, the 14 percent duty on cold rolled coil and the 15 percent duty on galvanized products, which Turkey had increased on January 1 this year from their previous repective levels of five, six and 14 percent.
According to Mr. Onay, at the meeting in question the domestic industry representatives complained about the lack of sufficient domestic supplies of flat rolled products, pointing out that Turkey has to import around seven million mt per year.
Turkish end-users suffer a $50/mt extra cost on imported flat products, which threatens their export business, Mr. Onay said.
Since the market was slow in the first quarter of 2009, the decreasing import volumes did not affect the market very severely. However, as of June, Turkish flat rolled steel demand started to rise rapidly, resulting in a shortage of material. Turkey's largest flats producer Erdemir cannot satisfy demand and increased its prices by $60-70/mt in the period from the start of June up to early July, while the high import duty meant that end-consumers lacked competitiveness in the international market.
Mr. Onay stated that following their complaints the Turkish government has started to study the current market situation, and will publish its decision as regards cancelation or reduction of the import duties in question within 15 days.