Speaking at the SteelOrbis Market Talks Meeting held in Istanbul, Mehmet Zeren, general secretary of Turkey's Steel Pipe Manufacturers Association (ÇEBİD), informed participants about upcoming steel pipeline projects in Turkey. These include the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP) scheduled to begin construction in 2014 in order to transfer gas from Azerbaijan to Europe via Turkey and which is expected to use a total of 1.8 million mt of steel pipes, and also the Nabucco pipeline project which will transport natural gas from Turkey to EU countries, and an oil and natural gas transmission pipeline project between Turkey and Iraq. He said negotiations with Turkey's energy ministry are being carried out to ensure that steel pipes made in Turkey will meet the required criteria and be able to take part in these projects.
Mr. Zeren also mentioned that negotiations are being carried out so that Turkish-made spiral welded pipes will be able to take part in Middle East projects in which longitudinally welded pipes are generally used. These efforts could lead to an increase in Turkey's steel pipe exports.
Referring to the debate on Turkey's Inward Processing Regime (IPR), Zeren said that Turkish steel pipe producers have to import their raw materials from abroad in order to be able to compete with countries like China which can obtain the required raw materials in their own market at low prices. He added that Turkish pipe producers are not able to source raw materials in Turkey at the desired price levels. The Inward Processing Regime, which aims at incentivizing Turkey's export activity, involves the reimbursement of taxes paid on imports of raw materials after the export of goods produced from the imported materials has been completed.
On the other hand, noting that in 2012 Turkey's steel pipe output rose 12 percent, while steel pipe exports saw an increase of over 10 percent, both year on year, Mr. Zeren predicted a growth of five percent in domestic production and 3.5 percent growth in Turkish steel pipe exports in 2013.