Turkish galvanized steel industry
There are four galvanized steel producers in Turkey. In alphabethical order, these producers are :Producer Production capacity ASSAN Galvaniz San ve Tic AS 200'000 mts/year BIRLIK Galvaniz Sac San Tic AS 90'000 mts/year * EREGLI Demir Celik Fabrikalari TAS 350'000 mts/year TEZCAN Galvanizli Yapi Elemanlari AS 250'000 mts/year* Birlik Galvaniz has a new investment of 350'000 mt annual capacity, to become operative by the end 2003. In Turkey, galvanized steel, produced according to hot dip galvanizing method, is mostly of commercial quality and used in various appliances, such as construction, air conditioning, cable armoring, sections, polyurethane master panels and solar power panels although the latest investments are articulated to be made in white goods and automotive industries. The 350'000 mt investment of BIRLIK Galvaniz (BORCELIK) will produce Arcelor patented material “extragal” adressing the automotive sector. Another reason for such placement of the product into the market is the division of different layers of the local commercial grade galvanized sheet market among the current production of ASSAN, TEZCAN, ERDEMIR and BIRLIK Galvaniz. When we look at the export statistics of Turkish galvanized producers in the last seven years, major export markets ranked as the first five are as follows:
96 97 98 99 00 01 02 1. Israel Israel Greece Israel Romania Romania US 2. Romania Greece Romania Lebanon Israel Lebanon Romania 3. Syria Romania Israel Greece Lebanon Israel Israel 4. Yemen Syria Iran Cyprus Belgium Syria Lebanon 5. Italy Iran Syria Italy Greece Greece Spain It is observed that, except for certain differences deriving from market dynamics of the period, such as Turkish producers who were granted exemptions from the US anti-dumping implementations in 2002, diverting to US market by taking the advantage of rising prices here, exporters are focused on certain Eastern Europe and Middle East countries in general. Yearly total export tonnage to all countries are as follows:Year Tonnage 1996 16'769 tons 1997 30'526 tons 1998 40'249 tons 1999 43'520 tons 2000 60'860 tons 2001 80'571 tons 2002 133'084 tonsObservations reveal that as a result of increased tonnages and quality improvement actions, Turkish exporters have raised their exports every year. Together with upsurge in sales to traditional markets, sales to alternative markets are now also being perfomed.