Posted on 02 Sep 2021
Turkish steelmakers expect to reach production of around 39 million tonnes in 2021, if the current growth trend is maintained, surpassing the record production of 37.5mt recorded in 2017.
“While the first half of 2021 was a period of increases due to the base effect, an increase of approximately 45% was observed in production, especially in April and May. The disappearance of the base effect after June had an impact on steel production in July. Despite this, with a production increase of 2.5% in July, our country once again rose to seventh place in the world ranking, surpassing Germany,” says Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD) general secretary Veysel Yayan.
Turkey's crude steel production increased 2.5% on-year in July to 3.2mt, while seven-month output reached 22.3mt, up 17.7% on-year, according to TCUD.
Finished steel consumption was up 4.9% to 2.8mt in July. January-July consumption rose by 25.3% to 20.2mt.
Exports of flat and long steel products rose in July by 10.6% to 1.6mt and in value by 98.1% to $1.4 billion. January-July exports increased by 15.9% to 10.8mt and by 69.5% to $8 billion, Kallanish notes.
July imports rose 15.9% to 1.4mt. In value, they rose 113% to $1.3 billion. January-July imports grew 32.2% to 9.6mt and 85% to $7.9 billion.
The ratio of exports to imports in January-July fell to 100.8:100 versus 110:100 last year due to the increase in imports.
Due to the 15.9% increase in Turkish steel imports in July, the share of imports in consumption rose to 48%, an increase of 6 percentage points compared to 2020.
“At a time when Turkish steel producers face serious restrictions in exports due to extensive protection measures in world markets, the fact that the share of imports in domestic consumption reached an extraordinary level of 48% not only damaged our industry but also our economy,” says Yayan.
Yayan notes that approximately 2.5mt of the overall 3.2mt of hot rolled coil imports came from Russia, Ukraine, India and China in the first seven months of the year.
Turkey’s imports from Russia increased by 89.6% to 1.3mt, imports from Ukraine increased 108% to 675,000t, and imports from India reached 315,000t, surging by 5,000%. In addition, steep increases were observed in imports from China and Japan.
“Imports from these countries, worth $2.2 billion, carried out within the scope of the Inward Processing Regime are destroying our steel industry, considering we have almost no steel product exports [to these countries],” Yayan adds.
“Considering that the 2 million tonnes capacity of the flat steel producer MMK has been re-activated and the capacities of our other producers will be activated as of 2022, it is vital to take necessary measures to limit imports of hot-rolled steel products within the scope of the Inward Processing Regime, primarily from Russia, Ukraine and India, without further delay,” Yayan concludes.
Source:Kallanish
