Consumption slumps in Turkey, exports begin to slow down

As there was an overall 25.8% slump in Turkish steel consumption in the first three quarters of the year, Turkish mills have focused more on export markets. However, as export demand also has begun to slow down, the pressure on Turkish mills’ quotations has risen.

According to the latest Turkish Steel Producers Association (TCUD) data published Friday, Turkey’s flats consumption declined by 12% on year in January-September to 11.1 million mt, while longs consumption slumped by 39.4% to 7.8 million mt, amid an ongoing construction sector crisis.

Turkey’s overall finished steel output was also down in this sentiment by 16.2% year on year to 25 million mt in the nine-month period. Turkey’s longs production declined by 22.5% to 14.9 million mt, while mills’ flats output fell by 4.7% to 10.1 million mt in the same comparison.

Although Turkish mills focused more on exports and managed to increase their overall steel export volumes by 9.4% year on year to 16.5 million mt in January-September, export volumes began to slow down in September due to lower demand from some of Turkey’s main export markets, particularly the EU, which raised the pressure on mill quotations.

Turkish mills’ steel exports fell by 8.1% on year to 1.9 million mt in September, while the revenue generated from these exports fell by 16% to $1.3 billion, the latest data showed.  

Although Turkish mills’ longs exports remained relatively strong at 961,000 mt in that month, flat steel exports fell by 21.4% to 403,000 mt. Turkish mills’ semi-finished product exports fell more sharply in September by 59.2% to 73,000 mt, the latest TCUD data showed.

— Cenk Can