Russian steelmaker MMK’s Turkish subsidiary MMK Metalurji gathered together steel industry representatives and business partners at a dinner that was held on October 14 in Istanbul to celebrate the launch of its hot rolling plant which was halted in 2012 and recommissioned in July this year.
After the welcome speech by Denis Kvasov, general manager of MMK Metalurji, Alexey Oleynik, sales and marketing director of the company made a presentation on the potential for hot rolled steel consumption in Turkey.
Mr. Oleynik said that hot rolled steel production in Turkey during 2020 stood at 10.7 million mt, while it reached 7.88 million mt in the first eight months of the current year. During the same periods, Turkey’s hot rolled steel consumption was 12.04 million mt and 10.04 million mt, exports amounted to 2.88 million mt and 1.54 million mt and imports came to 4.11 million mt and 3.71 million mt, respectively. Accordingly, MMK Metalurji predicts hot rolled steel production for the whole year of 2021 at 11.97 million, consumption at 15.44 million mt, exports at 2.18 million mt and imports at 5.65 million mt.
MMK plans to sell half of its 2 million mt of hot rolled steel production to the domestic market and the balance will be shared between MMK’s own consumption and the export markets.
Mr. Oleynik also shared some expectations regarding end-user sector growth projections in Turkey within the next three years. The automotive industry is expected to grow by 5.2 percent, the construction industry by 5.5 percent, white goods by seven percent, machinery and industrial equipment by four percent, and oil and gas by 11 percent. For the same period, the average growth rate for the end-user sectors stands at 5.6 percent.