The Turkish Steel Producers’ Association has commented on its Turkish steel industry data for the first 11 months of 2018 and on the industry’s prospects in 2019.
According to the TCUD, despite lower profit margins, Turkish steel producers focused on exports in the first 11 months of the year, due to the 12 percent decline in domestic steel consumption. Although this situation prevented a decline in production in 2018, the TCUD stated that the tightening margins between input costs and finished products, the ongoing decrease in domestic consumption and, even more, the decrease in imports may negatively impact production and exports in the first half of 2019. As a result, the implementation of any measures to boost domestic consumption and to limit the share of imported products in domestic consumption is crucial, the TCUD stated.