The Turkish Iron and Steel Producers' Association (DCUD) has released a statement saying that the Turkish steel industry has left behind a challenging year in 2009, when, despite the rising input costs, products could not be sold due to lack of demand in international markets and thus producers had difficulties in finding acceptance for their prices. Even in this unfavorable situation in 2009, Turkey's steel product exports regressed by only 5.6 percent year on year in terms of volume.
Meanwhile, according to the statement, Turkey's steel consumption of 21.4 million metric tons in 2008 fell by 16.1 percent to 18 million metric tons in 2009. However, despite the contraction in consumption, thanks to the Turkish steel industry's success in heading to new markets and also thanks to the decline in steel product imports, the drop in the country's steel output was limited to 5.6 percent year on year. Thus Turkey managed to record the third best performance in crude steel production worldwide, following China and India, and ranked tenth among the top steel producers of the world in terms of tonnage produced.
Even if the drop in export volume was at a reasonable rate, with the decline in steel prices reaching up to 70 percent, revenue from Turkey's steel exports witnessed a higher decrease rate. Total steel product exports amounting to $20.5 billion in 2008, regressed to $12 billion in 2009.
The DCUD emphasized the insufficiency of governmental measures in preventing adverse effects of the global financial crisis, stating that the government policies omitted to support the competitiveness of the industry, output levels, exports and employment.
The association said that, despite the continuing unfavorable situation in the markets and the problem of over capacity in world steel industry, it maintains its positive outlook for 2010 and continues to expect the suppression of additional tax charges as well as a reduction in energy costs in order to assure an improvement in the competitiveness of the domestic industry in the international markets.