According to a media report in the Turkish daily newspaper Dünya, Turkey-based Atakaş Group will invest $100 million in its subsidiary Atakaş Çelik located in Hatay. With the investment in question, which is expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2023, Atakaş Çelik’s production capacity will increase by 400,000 mt to 1.1 million mt.
“In fact, we wanted to start this investment earlier. But, the pandemic disrupted our investment,” Mustafa Atakaş, board member of the company, said. He stated that employment at the plant will double from 550 after the investment.
Stating that the steel industry has been having a good period, Mr. Atakaş said that sales to the export markets are strong to meet increasing demand amid the problems experienced in the supply chain in the Far East and the plant shutdowns in Europe due to the pandemic.
Regarding the Green Deal, “Although the carbon duty has not been clarified yet, it is clear that it will greatly affect our industry in the near future. We will see the main impact on the side of HRC producers who produce with blast furnace and electric arc furnace technologies. As the biggest user of these products, we may be subject to some restrictions or duties on the raw materials we use when exporting to the EU,” he commented.
Atakaş Çelik currently has an annual production capacity of 700,000 mt of CRC, HDG and coated steel.