Turkey’s crude steel production was 3 million tons in February with a decrease of 3.3% compared to the same month of the previous year.
Turkish Steel Producers Association (TCUD) announced production, consumption and foreign trade data for February.
Accordingly, Turkey’s crude steel production in February decreased by 3.3% compared to the same month of the previous year, and decreased to 3 million tons. Crude steel production decreased by 5.7% in the first 2 months of the year to 6.1 million tons.
Finished steel consumption increased by 1.9% on an annual basis to 2.9 million tons in February, and decreased by 1.2% to 5.9 million tons in the January-February period.
EXPORTS OF STEEL PRODUCTS INCREASED BY 1.3%
In February, exports of steel products were recorded as 1.3 million tons with an annual increase of 1.3% in terms of quantity, and $1.2 billion with an increase of 46.5% in terms of value.
In the January-February period, compared to the same period of the previous year, exports increased by 2% in amount to 2.6 million tons, and increased by 52.4% in value to $2.4 billion.
IMPORTS INCREASED BY 12.9%
In February, steel products imports were recorded as 1.4 million tons with an increase of 12.9% in terms of quantity, and $1.5 billion with an increase of 76.3% in terms of value compared to the same month of the previous year.
In the first 2 months of the year, imports amounted to 2.8 million tons with an increase of 13.8% in terms of quantity compared to the same period of the previous year, and at the level of $2.9 billion with an increase of 67.6% in terms of value.
The ratio of exports to imports, which was 88.9% in the January-February period of last year, decreased to 80.8% in the same period of this year due to the high rate of increase in imports.
“THE WAR’S INFLUENCE ON PRODUCTION IS CONCERNED AGAINST SERIOUS DIMENSIONS”
TCUD Secretary-General Veysel Yayan, whose views were given in the statement, pointed out that there was a decrease in the production of the sector for 3 consecutive months, including December 2021.
Stating that the import of scrap from Russia and Ukraine, which are important scrap suppliers, decreased significantly in February, due to the high tax on scrap exports and partly due to the war, Yayan said, “Our scrap imports from Russia decreased by 96.6%, from 160 thousand tons to 5 thousand tons. On the other hand, our imports from Turkey decreased from 17 thousand tons to 2 thousand tons. The decrease in imports of steel products remained at a more limited level.”
Yayan also touched upon the effects of the Russia-Ukraine War on steel production, and said:
“Although our country has come to the forefront as one of the countries that will benefit most from the new quota distribution as a result of EU sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, scrap, anthracite, ferro silico manganese, pig iron which are the main inputs of the sector, are imported to a large extent from Ukraine and Russia.
For this reason, we are concerned that the negative impact of the occupation on our steel production will reach serious dimensions. Especially the bottleneck in raw material supply has led to an extraordinary increase in prices. It is expected that the decline in imports of raw materials and semi-products will have a clearer impact on March indicators.
Emphasizing that the fact that the ships carrying cargo to this region are not insured because the Black Sea is declared a risky region negatively affects the steel producers and industrial sectors in this region, Yayan said, “There is an urgent need to create safe corridors and continue state-guaranteed insurance procedures to solve this problem.”
“USA SHOULD ABOLISH CUSTOMS TAX ON STEEL WITH TURKEY” RECOMMENDATION
Reminding that the USA, after the EU and Japan, made a compromise with the UK by removing the customs duty on steel products and tying exports to a quota, he pointed out that this would allow the tax-exempt countries to gain an advantage against Turkey in the US market.
Noting that it would be beneficial for the USA to make a similar agreement with Turkey, Yayan said, “This is important in terms of compensating for the losses in our steel exports in the US market in previous years and increasing the performance of the sector at least in the second quarter of the year.”
Source: NTV / Translated by Irem Yildiz