MMK Metalurji may resume HRC production in 2016-17

During the "New Horizons in Global Steel Markets" 9th Annual Conference organized by SteelOrbis in Istanbul on November 28, Sergey Sulimov, deputy CEO for finance and economy at Russian steelmaker MMK, informed his listeners about the steel market trends and gave his predictions for the future. Mr. Sulimov outlined the latest situation as regards MMK Metalurji, the Iskenderun-based Turkish subsidiary of MMK, where the electric arc furnace has been idle since 2012. He said that MMK Metalurji may start producing hot rolled coil (HRC) at its full capacity of 2.3 million metric tons per year when the gap between scrap prices and HRC prices is at the desired level, with this expected to happen in the 2016-2017 period. 
 
Meanwhile, giving his forecast for the mid-term period (2016-17), the MMK official said that economic growth in the US will slow down and the country will increase its scrap exports from 18 million mt to 22-24 million mt, while the Turkish economy will show moderate growth and Turkey will see increases in its steel consumption. He went on to say that China is expected to shut down 50-100 million mt of steel capacity and will improve its capacity utilization. As for raw material prices, he stated that scrap prices will decrease to below $300/mt CIF Turkey, while prices of iron ore and metallurgical coal may increase to $90-100/mt and $130-140/mt respectively.
 
Sulimov also pointed out that MMK's finished steel output in the first nine months of this year totaled 9.3 million mt, up 11 percent, with its revenues for this period decreasing by 15 percent to $6.2 million, both on year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, in the third quarter this year, Russian steel imports from Ukraine decreased by year on year to 0.4 million mt, he indicated.