According to a statement released by the Turkish Iron and Steel Producers' Association (DCUD), in November this year Turkey's crude steel production via blast furnaces fell by 1.3 percent compared to October and was up by 16 percent year on year, amounting to 835,000 mt, while crude steel production using EAFs exceeded 2.1 million mt, rising 6.1 percent month on month and up 0.7 percent compared to November 2011.
According to the DCUD, Turkey's crude steel production maintains its growing trend despite the contraction of the demand in global markets and in the domestic market. In the first 11 months of the current year, the country's crude steel output exceeded 33 million mt, up 6.5 percent year on year. In this period, steel production using EAFs amounted to 26.4 million mt, with an increase of seven percent, while production via blast furnaces rose by 5.2 percent to 8.5 million mt, both compared to the same period of 2011.
The association noted that in the first 11 months of 2012 Turkey's steel billet output moved up by 12.9 percent to 25 million mt, while its slab output fell by 9.2 percent to 8.1 million mt, both on year-on-year basis. The decline in slab production and the increase in billet production was due to the decline in the purchases of flat steel by the European market, Turkey's largest destination for flat steel exports, amid the economic contraction in Europe, according to the DCUD announcement.