Posted on 31 May 2022
Most Turkish steel companies, especially those who are multinational enterprises, are hesitant to buy Russian steel due to the fear of being subject to sanctions, says Galex Steel International managing director Gorkem Bolaca.
“At the moment, the market in Turkey is very cautious and domestic companies prefer to buy slabs from Asian countries,” he noted at the Kallanish Europe Steel Markets 2022 event on Monday.
After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Russian steel companies offered their products to the Turkish market at ever more competitive prices. This led to a halt in trading activity in Turkey as buyers wanted to see how far prices would fall, said Kallanish Turkey editor Burcak Alpman. “We see this effect until now due to huge Russian exports to Turkey.”
If Turkey buys slabs from Russian companies and transforms them to finished steel of Turkish origin, then those goods will not be subject to EU and other Western sanctions against Russia, added Fabrizio Di Gianni, partner in law firm Van Bael & Bellis. “Another thing is to tranship Russian steel products from enterprises like Severstal, because this will break the sanctions,” he commented.
According to Di Gianni, there is no possibility in the near future that the EU will ban scrap exports. “However, there will probably be attempts to control or moderate the shipments of this raw material, but no ban,” he observed.
The new export duties in India will meanwhile most likely decrease finished steel exports from that country, while Indian capacity expansions are likely to slow, said Kallanish Indian subcontinent editor Sayed Aameer.
Source:Kallanish
