The Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD) has said that in the first seven months of the current year the Turkish steel industry tried to compensate for its losses through exports, against the backdrop of protective measures, trade diversions, EU import quotas and the decline in consumption both locally and abroad.
The TCUD said that in the second quarter of the year Turkey’s exports to the EU declined, while the Turkish steel industry became “the backyard of EU producers” as the EU’s domestic steel consumption decreased. It also pointed out that Turkey is not able to export to hardly any of the regions from which it imports. Flat imports from the CIS region account for Turkey’s total flat steel imports, while 80 percent of flat steel imported from the CIS is imported via Turkey’s inward processing regime without any duties and at dumped prices, according to the TCUD. Turkey remains an open market for the CIS region, while the CIS region is subject to trade measures in other parts of the world, the TCUD noted.
If imports into Turkey continue at high levels despite sharp declines in domestic consumption, recent capacity additions will remain idle, the association stated. Taking this into account as well as the further decrease in Turkish crude steel production which already registered a 10 percent decrease in the first seven months this year and the failure to complete new investments, it is inevitable that the Turkish steel industry which employs 300,000 people will face serious losses, the TCUD stated.
“Considering all these developments, protective measures should be adopted to protect the Turkish steel industry, as in the US and EU,” the TCUD said in conclusion.