According to a media report in the Turkish daily newspaper Dünya on June 30, Turkish steel producer Ekinciler is preparing for the second phase of its investments to switch to a higher value-added steel product range.
Regarding the first phase of the investment, Haluk Ekinci, chairman of the executive board of Ekinciler, said, “Apart from the construction steel quality produced in the 10.5 mm radius billet casting machine that we have just established - low and high carbon wire rod used in manufacturing such as electrodes, bolts, mesh and thin wire, we have started to produce billets for hot drawn pipes and all kinds of angles, IPN and HBN profiles.”
With the investment made by the company last year, the company upgraded the radius of casting to 10.5 mm from 5 mm and of billet sections to 220 mm from 150 mm, while the capacity of its billet caster increased by 30 percent, as SteelOrbis previously reported.
Stating that the recovery in the sector in the second half last year and the significant increases in demand and prices resulted in an increase in production, Mr. Ekinci commented, “In the first five months this year, the production increase in Turkey reached up to 20 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. For the same period, our production increase was 50 percent with the new investment.”