Turkish consumption growth seen giving hope for 2020

Turkish finished steel consumption soared 34.4% on-year in October to 2.6 million tonnes, but declined -21.5% on-year in January-October to 21.5mt, Kallanish learns from the Turkish Steel Producers Association (TCUD).

Turkish steel exports, meanwhile, declined -12.5% on-year in October to 2mt, while increasing 6.4% on-year to 18.5mt in January-October.

Imports, however, increased 16.1% on-year in October to 1mt. In the first ten months of 2019, imports decreased -21% to 10.2mt and by -25.2% in value due to the contraction in Turkish steel consumption.

In January-October, the ratio of exports to imports increased, from 126:100 in the same period of the previous year, to 161:100.

Global crude steel production was up 3.25% in the ten months to 1.5 billion tonnes. China’s production rose 7.4% to 829mt, while second-largest producer India’s crude steel output rose by 2.8% to 93mt.

Among the top 15 steel-producing countries, Vietnam was the country with the highest production growth of 49.6% in the January-October period.

Turkey, with a -10.6% decline, was the country with the steepest crude steel production decline among the top 15 producing countries.

TCUD says Turkey’s exports to the US and the EU – the two most important – have declined significantly as a result of the measures implemented from August 2018 against exports of Turkish steel products.

“Domestic steel consumption declined -21.5% in the ten months of the year despite the recovery seen in recent months,” TCUD says. “While exports declined, imports started to increase, resulting in a -10.6% drop in production despite the increase in consumption. However, the 34.4% increase in consumption in October gave hope for both the remaining two months of the year and for 2020 as a strong support for recovery expectations.”

Meanwhile, Turkey’s economy has rebounded strongly from recession thanks to supportive government policies and a weak base from last year. Recent high frequency indicators suggest further momentum growth in the last quarter of 2019.