At the 19th SteelOrbis Steel Conference “New Horizons in Steel Markets” held on Tuesday, December 3, in Istanbul, Veysel Yayan, secretary general of the Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD), shared his opinions regarding the general situation in the Turkish steel industry.
Mr. Yayan stated that, even though global steel production in the last three years has shown stagnation, it has remained at relatively high levels, while China made up the main share of the 1.55 billion mt of steel production recorded in the first ten months this year. However, Turkey has become the world’s eighth largest steel producer after Vietnam, following the declines in its steel output in 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, global steel capacity utilization rates have stayed at high levels.
The TCUD secretary general said in his speech that, even though the GDP of Turkey has consistently recorded lower growth each month, the increased liveliness of construction activities after the earthquakes last year has stopped its GDP from posting a decline. The manufacturing sector’s production decreased by 0.6 percent in the first three quarters and it is expected to keep slipping up to the end of the year, while the steel sector posted a strong performance with 13.8 percent growth. Noting that flat product imports declined by 17.1 percent in the January-September period this year, Mr. Yayan said that the difference between Turkey’s flat steel and long steel consumption - the former being higher in normal conditions - shrunk after the start of the post-earthquake construction works.
Failing to produce the catastrophic results which had been expected, the measures Turkey implemented on wire rod imports resulted in a 54.6 percent decrease in imports in the first ten months this year, while wire rod prices moved down, Yayan said. He went on to say that the actions taken by the government bore fruit and that the Turkish steel sector has improved. If new measures are implemented and the government follows the same policy, steel capacity in Turkey can be actually used for meeting local demand and seizing new export opportunities, he commented.
On the topic of decarbonization, Turkey’s focus on EAF-based production and renewable energy investments provides two further advantages, the TCUD secretary general said, while also saying that he expects the improving relations between the EU and Turkey will facilitate the green transformation.
