Colakoglu to complete flat steel capacity increase project in June

Turkish steelmaker Colakoglu expected its project to increase hot-rolled coil production capacity 50% to 4.5 million mt to be completed in June, CEO Ugur Dalbeler told S&P Global Commodity Insights at the EUROMETAL Steel Day conference in Istanbul.

“We will decide to start up the mill with full capacity in the coming months, depending on market conditions,” the CEO said April 27.

The increase in HRC capacity will help Colakoglu widen its product range.

The company aims to raise output of special steel grades like Interstitial Free steel, high-strength steels and stainless steels.

Colakoglu started production of special grades of stainless sheet in October 2020, in line with the company’s target of focusing more on value-added steel.

The company operates an electric arc furnace mill in Dilovasi, western Turkey, which makes slabs for a hot rolling mill and billets for producing rebar. It has a bar output capacity of 600,000 mt/year, and HRC production capacity of 3 million mt/year.

With Colakoglu’s increased HRC production and major steelmaker Tosyali’s new 4 mil mt/year HRC mill project, which was expected to start trial production at the end of May, Turkey’s installed HRC output capacity will rise notably.

The increase in HRC output capacity will reduce the country’s need to import HRC, according to industry sources.

Low demand both in the domestic and export markets as well as competitive import offers have, however, been pressuring Turkish mills’ steel pricing recently.

Many imported flat steel cargoes were expected to enter the Turkish ports as of May, sources at the Eurometal conference told S&P Global.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, last assessed Turkish HRC at $760/mt ex-works on April 21, down 4.4% week on week.

Author Cenk Can