Sluggish global demand, increased input costs, improved Chinese performance in the world markets together with the slowdown of local Turkish steel demand and trade protection investigations against Turkish origin steel products resulted in a weaker output performance of the Turkish steel industry in 2014, according to the Turkish Iron and Steel Producers' Association (TCUD).
In the given year, Turkey’s crude steel output decreased by 1.8 percent year on year to 34.04 million mt. In 2014, Turkey’s crude steel output by electric arc furnaces decreased by 3.9 percent year on year to 23.75 million mt while crude steel output by integrated plants rose by 3.5 percent year on year to 10.28 million mt.
Meanwhile, in December 2014 Turkey’s crude steel production recorded a decrease of 2.85 percent month on month and of 6.3 percent year on year to 2.72 million mt. In the given period, Turkey’s crude steel production by electric arc furnaces declined by 7.2 percent on year-on-year basis and by 5.7 percent on month-on-month basis to 1.8 million mt, while the output of integrated plants decreased by 4.6 percent compared to the previous month and was up by 2.13 percent year on year to 909,000 mt.
On the other hand, in 2014 Turkey’s billet output decreased by 6.4 percent to 24.6 million mt while the country’s slab output increased by a significant 12.7 percent to 9.42 million mt, both on year-on-year basis.