Speaking at the SteelOrbis Italy Forum 2024 held in Milan on October 8, Meltem Alım Atmaca, director of international marketing and sales, international trading at Turkish integrated steel producer Erdemir, informed the participants about Erdemir’s key milestones in its almost 60-year-old journey. Erdemir, the largest flat steel producer in Turkey, has an annual hot rolling capacity of 8.6 million mt, while its group company and Turkey’s first and only iron ore pelletizing company ERMADEN has a pellet production capacity of 1.5 million mt, supplying 38 percent of iron ore demand in Türkiye and 16 percent of Erdemir’s iron ore consumption.
According to the Erdemir official, in the first six months this year Turkey produced 19 million mt of steel, while its consumption has been increasing, contrary to the situation in other countries, with Turkish manufacturing and construction industries doing very well. She went on to say that this can also mean that there may be supply problems, since total flat steel consumption in Turkey in 2023 was 19.5 million mt and production was just 13.7 million mt, with the difference being directly imported from other markets, making Turkey a net importer of steel.
Ms. Atmaca drew attention to how trade collaboration between Turkey and the EU has changed over the years. The EU accounted for 43 percent of Turkey’s imports in 2019, whereas now it is down to 20 percent, while Turkey’s share in the EU’s import market stood at an average of 16 percent between 2017 and 2022, while in 2023 its share decreased to about seven percent. Both these changes show that both markets have been dominated by Asian suppliers lately. The Erdemir official concluded by affirming, “The EU and Turkey need to have a strong collaboration today more than ever, against the cheap prices coming from Asia, or they will undermine both Turkey and the EU”.
