It has been a month since the devastating earthquakes hit Turkey’s southeastern region, home to one third of the country’s steelmaking capacity, and most of the mills, except one, resumed working after the initial inspection of damages and the repair period, while Isdemir is also expected to come online at the end of this week, Veysel Yayan, secretary general of the Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD), told Bloomberg. All mills are expected to be operational by mid-March.
Mr. Yayan said that the production lines were not damaged because of the earthquakes, but that the mills had stopped because the staff were impacted. Now with the resumption of the operations, Turkey’s steel production is forecast to increase in April, amid the higher demand expected as a result of the rebuilding plans in the region. The TCUD official said steelmakers in other regions of the country have already stepped up their production, which may see capacity utilization rates moving up from 63.7 percent in 2022 to almost 70 percent this year.
“I think national steel output in March will be more than half of the same month last year and April production will be higher year on year,” Veysel Yayan told Bloomberg.