The second SteelOrbis Market Talks Meeting of the current year has been held in the southern Turkish city of Iskenderun on October 12. Speaking at the meeting, Ozan M. Karadag, production director of Turkey-based steel producer MMK Metalurji, stated that the company plans to put its hot rolled strip facility, which was idled in 2012, into operation in 2018. Mr. Karadag also stated that the steel industry’s performance in general was good during the third quarter of this year, while they expect the fourth quarter to be profitable.
In addition, Burcak Odabası Alpman, raw material analyst at SteelOrbis, stated that scrap prices, which increased gradually from June this year, had risen significantly by the middle of August and reached the levels recorded in 2014. According to Ms. Alpman, the graphite electrode shortage in the global industry will put pressure on scrap prices in the coming period and scrap demand will also decrease. She went on to state that iron ore prices will decrease due to production cuts and the discontinuation of public projects in Tangshan, including all construction, road, and water projects and housing demolition, starting from October 12. Ms. Alpman added that coal prices are expected to move in line with iron ore prices in the coming period. Regarding the graphite electrode shortage, she indicated that the decreases in graphite electrode production started in 2014 and, following China’s decision to reduce graphite electrode production capacity in 2016, the graphite electrode problem has had a significant impact on the steel industry and this problem is expected to continue in 2018 as well.
Meanwhile, Salim Metin, CEO of Turkish steel supplier Corbus, stated that, due to recent crucial developments in the global markets, Turkish long steel producers have started to increase their exports of billet instead of rebar. According to Mr. Metin, the Middle East will start to export rebar in the coming period because of overcapacity in its domestic market. In addition, because of the antidumping duties imposed by Egypt on rebar imports from Turkey, Ukraine and China, local Egyptian mills which had previously been idled have restarted operations. For these reasons, Turkish mills have increased their billet sales to these markets. Commenting on the increased demand for rebar in Turkey following the referendum held in April and local construction companies’ complaints that Turkish rebar prices were too high, Mr. Metin stated that, even though import duty was lowered to 10 percent from 30 percent, Turkey’s rebar imports remained limited. Turkey has the second-lowest rebar prices in the world after China, the Corbus CEO pointed out.