Turkish Steel Federation chairman Namık Ekinci has said that the halving of the 50 percent duty on Turkish steel imports to 25 percent is pleasing, adding that this positive development is the fruit of efforts by Turkey’s Ministry of Trade, as well as by the Turkish Steel Exporters’ Association and the Turkish Steel Federation.
Mr. Ekinci stated that Turkish steel producers will reach full capacity as a result of the reduction of the duty and he went on to say that the safeguard measures in the EU were a result of trade diversion concerns which have been eliminated now with the US market opening again.
The Turkish Steel Federation chairman said that, with the duty hike in August 2018, rebar and hot rolled steel exports to the US came to a halt. “Because the duty hike was a sudden decision, we had ships in transit to the US, we kept them waiting at duty-free areas and we cleared those shipments through customs gradually. This is the reason for the exports of the small tonnages seen in the records,” Mr. Ekinci said.