Day: 3 December 2020

Approximately 50% of Turkish steel consumption being met by imports in recent months has prevented capacity utilisation from increasing significantly, despite an improvement in the market, says the Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TCUD).

“The EU Commission has continued to restrict our steel exports,” says TCUD general secretary Veysel Yayan. “Following the quota implementation which is revised and tightened every six months, dumping investigation and countervailing duty investigation, in November, at the request of Eurofer, the EU commission decided to register imports to impose historical taxes.”

The European Commission continues to unilaterally implement the provisions of the ECSC Free Trade Agreement, in line with its own interests, and to prevent Turkish steel exports, Yayan says. Yet no action has been taken against the EU, he adds.

Turkey’s crude steel production increased by 19.4% on-year in October to 3.2 million tonnes, according to TCUD. Production rose 4.2% on-year in January-October to 29.1mt.

October finished steel consumption was 2.5mt, up 27.6% on-year. Ten-month consumption was up 16.2% to 24.4mt.

Exports of flat and long steel products only decreased in October by -1.6% to 1.5mt. January-October exports declined -10.5% to 13.3mt and -18% to $6.8 billion, Kallanish notes.

October imports increased 2.2% to 963,000t. January-October imports grew 8.2% to 10.4mt.

The ratio of exports to imports in January-October fell to 109:100 versus 127:100 last year due to the increase in imports and decrease in exports.

“The Turkish steel industry, which exports to more than 100 countries of the world, expects the EU’s trade-restricting attitude to be terminated as soon as possible and to increase mutual efforts to return to fair trade in accordance with the agreements between us,” TCUD concludes.

Liberty Steel and thyssenkrupp have confirmed they will be entering the due diligence process which could eventually lead to a takeover of thyssenkrupp Steel Europe by Liberty.

“Thyssenkrupp and Liberty Steel Group have agreed to enter a further process phase,” the UK-based group writes in a statement sent to Kallanish. It “…will shortly begin a detailed due diligence and thus gain insight into key business data of thyssenkrupp’s steel business.”

A statement of similar wording has been issued by thyssenkrupp. Last week already, insiders told news agencies the next step of the takeover talks was in the offing.

Meanwhile, the economy minister of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, Andreas Pinkwart, was cited in the local press as having a positive attitude towards the negotiations. “It is a reasonable basis for discussion,” he was quoted as saying about Liberty’s non-binding offer after talking to Liberty chief Sanjeev Gupta. Pinkwart said Liberty’s concept is substantial, and he welcomed the group’s apparent willingness to push the transformation towards green steel.

At the same time, Pinkwart expressed scepticism about a possible participation of the state in thyssenkrupp as a stakeholder. Legal requirements are such that the option is virtually not feasible, he was quoted as saying.

Liberty has confirmed its Liege-Dudelange and Magona plants, in Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy, have been temporarily impacted by supply disruptions, affecting shipments to customers as a result.

The units are mainly specialised in the production of hot-dip galvanized coil using hot rolled coil as feedstock. Sources in the market note the disruptions have hit customers, who are being informed they will be affected by delivery delays or cancellation of orders in some cases.

“The issues are being resolved using our normal commercial mechanisms,” a Liberty Steel spokesman tells Kallanish. “We apologise to any customers impacted by this issue and expect shipments to return to normal soon.” The issues are still considered an effect of the problems created by the pandemic in Europe, he adds.

The coil market across Europe has been heavily impacted by tight availability since October. This has resulted in higher prices and longer lead times across the continent, Kallanish notes.