Turkish steelmaker İÇDAŞ is planning to start flat steel production, in addition to its long steel output. The producer is expecting to start the investment process next year in and the completion of the works will take three years, SteelOrbis understands. The investment amounts to $350 million, with an installed capacity of 3 million mt of flat steel, which will increase total steel capacity of İÇDAŞ to 6 million mt including long steel.
The establishment of the new flats capacity by İÇDAŞ will naturally increase the supply volumes in the market and, moreover, the market might be oversaturated, taking into account that the rest of the existing HRC producers in Turkey also have investments to expand their production capacities. “All of them have plans to increase HR capacity and for that volumes to be sold we need both strong local market and sustainable exports. In addition, there will be most probably less room for HRC imports in Turkey,” a trader said. Some other sources believe that the imports will be affected but mainly for the pipe-making grades while the wide availability of re-rolling grades of HRC might be an issue to solve.