Speaking at the Eurometal Steel Day & YISAD Flat Steel Conference held at Istanbul Marriott Hotel Asia on Tuesday, April 8, in cooperation with SteelOrbis, Veysel Yayan, secretary general of the Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD), pointed out that the 3.2 percent economic growth in Turkey seen for 2024 represented stable growth. This growth was contributed to by the positive growth of the construction industry, while the negative effect of the manufacturing industry was limited. Dr. Yayan said that Turkey’s steel exports in 2024 were supported by the bottlenecks in the Red Sea and the redistribution of the 6.5 million mt quota as a result of the EU’s sanctions on Russia and Belorussia, while Turkey’s exports, though still lively, might face some challenges in the coming period.
Stating that the Turkish steel industry grew by 9.4 percent in 2024, Dr. Yayan said, “We do not have any problems with competing with free market countries. However, it is impossible to say that we can compete with China”. The TCUD official said that China’s steel production is more than half of the world’s and, although there is some decline in its production, it is not significant, adding, “We are the second cheapest after China. However, they are still selling $120-130/mt cheaper than us and it is not sustainable. They seem to be invading the global steel industry in a systematic way”.
According to worldsteel, in the first two months of the current year Turkey posted a 3.7 percent decline in crude steel production but still managed to rank seventh in the world, rising from eighth place. Yayan pointed out that, looking at Turkey’s steel production and capacity utilization rates, one cannot talk about stable growth since the Turkish steel industry has been seeing ups and downs based on conjectures.
As regards flat steel, in 2024 Turkey produced 16.7 million mt, while producing 2.8 million mt in the first two months of 2025, while Dr. Yayan said that this is not the maximum amount that Turkey is able to produce technically. “The country’s flat steel capacity stands at about 25 million mt. There are also companies that plan to commission new capacities in the coming years to cater to their own needs,” he noted Turkey ranks 10th in the world in terms of flat steel production and is expected to climb up the ladder in the coming years. He went on to say that in flat steel consumption Turkey saw a 17 percent increase in 2023 and in 2024 the growth was maintained, though at a slower pace of 200,000 mt year on year. “If Turkey can get hold of its own domestic market, it is structurally capable of surviving without exports, this is a failsafe for us. It is not logical or favorable to import at such levels. It is surely necessary to keep imports under control. Consumption is of great value to us and the current environment shows that it will keep growing,” he commented.
In 2024, Turkey’s flat steel consumption amounted to 19 million mt, exports totaled 5.8 million mt and imports 8.1 million mt. According to Dr. Yayan, Turkey is perfectly capable of meeting 90 percent of imported flat steel from domestic production. He said that in the first two months of 2025 the export to import ratio in flat steel stood at 52.7 percent, which is disturbing. It should not be this easy to allow foreign currency flow abroad under the current circumstances, he stressed.
Sharing details regarding Turkey’s flat steel imports, Yayan commented, “In the last two years, new capacities of 5-5.5 million mt were commissioned and additional capacities are on the way, so we are long past the 'we want to buy domestically but it is not available' phase." Between 2021 and 2024, flat steel imports from China increased from 1.3 million mt to 2.3 million mt, while those from South Korea doubled. Russia’s flat steel exports to Turkey halted due to the antidumping duty investigation. In October last year, following the antidumping duty investigation against China, in the first two months of the current year imports from China decreased slightly, but the gap was met by South Korean imports which rose from 162,906 mt to 331,816 mt, while imports from Russia quadrupled in the given period. “Despite the AD duties, there is no decline in imports since the inward processing regime is keeping the gates wide open. Including the products that we have enough capacities of, the inward processing regime negatively affects Turkey’s production. Exporting under this regime other than meeting real needs means to target trade only, rather than industrialization,” Dr. Yayan commented.