Turkish flat steel producer Tatcelik will increase its galvanized steel capacity with the commissioning of the a new 650,000 mt line from June, Ayhan Ucar said at the EUROMETAL conference in Istanbul.
Tatcelik has a galvanized line that can produce, annually, 800,000 mt galvanized steel coils, a 200,000 mt pre-painted line and a 200,000 mt cold rolled line. The company has in total a rolling capacity of 1.5 million mt/year.
Ucar said that in the short-term for the Turkish companies there were expectations for new and postponed projects to restart, in particular after local elections in March with green energy investment set to continue to increase strongly.
Together with the expectation of interest rate cuts and the summer seasonal effect, Ucar expected there to be a positive effect on demand for and the price of steel after the third quarter.
Longer term. Ucar said the green energy transition meant “scrap will be more valuable” as companies are shifting their productions routes by using electric arc furnaces. That meant that Turkish mills that produce steel via EAF could face a period of some supply issues.
