Turkey’s Yildiz to start new HDG line in Q4 2021

Turkish conglomerate Yildizlar Yatirim Holding’s first foray into the steel market, Yildiz Demir Celik, which started steel production in 2018, is planning to start a new hot-dip galvanizing line by the fourth quarter of 2021, according to Hakki Yildiz, board member of the company.

“With this new line our hot-dip galvanizing capacity will reach 900,000 mt [per year],” Hakki Yildiz said to Turkish news agency AA Jan. 5, adding that the new investment worth $80 million will notably raise the company’s value-added steel production capacity, while it is also expected to pull up the company’s turnover by 40-45%.

Noting that they have managed to attain a good place in the market since their entrance into steel, Yildiz also said their capacity usage reached 80% in 2020.

Yildiz Demir Celik’s cold-rolling mill complex in Kocaeli, which started production at its new continuous pickling tandem line at the end of November 2019, with annual capacity of 1.5 million mt, currently has production capacity of 400,000 mt/year of HDG coil and 150,000 mt/year of pre-painted galvanized iron (PPGI), as well as 300,000 m/year of cold-rolled coil.

Yildiz Demir Celik is targeting export markets as well as the domestic market to meet rising demand from the automotive, white goods, panel radiator, general manufacturing and construction sectors.

Annual HDG production capacity in Turkey reached 4.7 million mt as of the end of 2019, sharply higher than the 2.9 million mt of installed HDG capacity in 2016. However, strong demand and higher HRC costs pulled up Turkish mills’ HDG offer prices above $1,000/mt ex-works in the last two weeks of 2020, a $300/mt rise since mid-October.

— Cenk Can