According to a report in the Turkish daily newspaper Dünya, the bombing of pig iron production facilities in Ukraine by Russia has put pig iron supply for the Turkey foundry industry in jeopardy. Pig iron prices increased by 30 percent to $900/mt in just two weeks due to delivery delays caused by the war. Turkey’s foundry industry imports approximately 70 percent of 1 million mt of pig iron annually from Ukraine and Russia.
Umur Denizci, president of the Turkish Foundry Association (TODOKSAD), stated that a possible interruption of supply of pig iron, which is the main input product, may cause metal casting facilities in Turkey to stop operating. Ukrainian mining and steel producing group Metinvest’s subsidiary Azovstal was damaged in the Russian attack on Mariupol, as SteelOrbis previously reported. Mr. Denizci said that, if other facilities encounter a similar situation, the global iron and steel trade, especially in Europe, will suffer significantly.
While the association is searching for alternative pig iron suppliers, it has asked local producers Kardemir and İsdemir to start pig iron production again. Stating that there are alternative sources of pig iron such as Brazil, South Africa and India, but these sources will not be the first choice in the short term due to the high logistics costs, the president of TUDOKSAD said that the facilities in Turkey should allocate some of their capacities to pig iron production.
