According to Turkish daily Dunya, Turkey will focus on production of value-added products such as stainless steel, special steel, structural steel and seamless steel pipes which are not sufficiently produced domestically.
Additionally, new production capacities for graphite electrodes, zinc ingots, sponge iron and alloy aluminum are planned to be commissioned by 2023.
According to Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD) data, during the 2013-17 period Turkey’s stainless steel import volume amounted to 2.9 million mt, while the value of these imports stood at $6 billion. Turkey's stainless steel imports mainly come from South Korea, China, Taiwan, Italy and Spain.
“Competition is increasing in the steel industry, we have to produce high value-added products to get a bigger share in competitive business conditions,” said acting TCUD general secretary Gazi Bilgin, who added that feasibility studies are underway to build a plant to produce graphite electrodes which are an important input in steel industry.