Bursa-based Turkish steelmaker Cemtas Celik Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S (Cemtas) announced on September 30 that in the last quarter of 2009 it will switch to a dual shift regime and will idle its production and sales operations during some weeks.
According to the company's release, the decision has been made in order to balance supply with demand which is forseen to be low in the fourth quarter of the current year due to the expected stagnation in domestic and foreign automotive and machine manufacturing industry, and because destocking activity has yet to be concluded by the company's customers.
The company also stated that it has applied for a working fund for reduced hours.
In the first half of 2009, Cemtas' meltshop, which has an annual capacity of 153,000 metric tons, decreased its billet output by 51 percent year on year to 36,344 metric tons, while the output of its rolling mill, with an annual capacity of 228,000 metric tons, totaled 33,000 metric tons, decreasing by 54 percent compared to H1 2008.
Cemtas is specialized in the production of special grade steel, mainly for the automotive and machine manufacturing industry.