Following Turkey’s largest steel pipe producer Borusan Mannesmann’s decision to pause output at some of its mills in Turkey, as well as its Vobarno plant in Italy, another major Turkish pipe producer, Erbosan Erciyas Boru, has also decided to pause output due to the COVID-19 outbreak, S&P Global Platts learned Thursday.
“As our coustomers’ orders fell notably both in the domestic and export markets, due to the expanding coronavirus outbreak, our sales and production activities were effected negatively,” the company said, adding that they have decided to pause output during April-July till the ease of the outbreak.
Erbosan Erciyas, which is a stock exchange listed company, is producing welded pipes, hollow sections and various industrial pipe qualities with a capacity of 200,000 mt/year. The company is exporting 50% of its prodcuts to export markets, like the US, EU and MENA region.
Many Turkish steel producer have paused their output in recent weeks as the expanding COVID-19 outbreak has hit demand and prices sharply. Turkish mills’ pipe export prices also fell significantly in recent weeks in line with hot-rolled coil prices in a sluggish market sentiment.
— Cenk Can
